Block Announces 'Mining Development Kit' to Provide Developers with a Suite of Tools to Help Unlock Innovation in Bitcoin Mining Hardware
"With the MDK, we see significant opportunity to increase the accessibility and openness of bitcoin mining hardware, in order to accelerate innovation in the field."
- The Mining Development Kit comes in addition to previously supported Block initiatives such as Bitcoin Development Kit and Lightning Development Kit.
Today we want to share that we are considering building a mining development kit, or MDK, and we’re inviting you to help us define it. The MDK as we currently envision it will consist of:
1. A powerful, reliable, industrial-grade bitcoin mining hashboard. The hashboard will be designed to be compatible with our custom built control board, as well readily available third party controllers, such as Raspberry Pi. What hardware features do you want to see on the hashboard?
2. A custom designed controller board designed to work with the hashboard. What features would you want to see on the control board?
3. Open source firmware, a software API and a web front-end, allowing developers to modify the key performance parameters of the hashboard. What features of the firmware do you want to be able to modify or control via the API? What preferences do you have?
4. Extensive reference materials and support documentation to facilitate easy customization of the hashboard. What kind of documentation and training materials would be helpful?
The intention behind the MDK is to provide developers with a suite of tools to help unlock creativity and innovation in bitcoin mining hardware. We anticipate the MDK being useful for development projects focused on integrating bitcoin mining into various novel use cases - such as heating solutions, off-grid mining, home mining or intermittent power applications - as well as optimization of bitcoin mining hardware for traditional commercial mining operations. With the MDK, we see significant opportunity to increase the accessibility and openness of bitcoin mining hardware, in order to accelerate innovation in the field.
