Bitcoin is power
The slides laid out a plan hinging on embedding 21's custom-made 'BitSplit' mining chips into everyday tech products such as USB chargers, PCs, routers, game consoles, phone chargers and direct chipsets at no cost to the hardware producers. The document suggests 21 had a working demo of its BitSplit chip at the time it was prepared.
According to the overview, the BitSplit chip's key innovation was intended to be a hardcoded bitcoin wallet address that would give the user 25% of mining proceeds, with the remaining 75% going to 21.
Each device would be built with target applications in mind that would then allow consumers to, in theory, spend any bitcoin earned for online content or digital services.
For example, PCs, mobile phone chargers and USB hubs would seek to encourage micropayments in applications, while routers and game consoles would allow users to spend bitcoin for added bandwidth or on in-app purchases.
Given that users would constitute a small portion of the network individually, 21 detailed how it could potentially increase the average payouts for both itself and the owners of consumer products with its technology.
The documents suggest 21 had sought to build 20,000-server, 26-megawatt datacenters to serve as the center of a mining pool that could ensure block rewards.
As an example of the potential power of its pool, 21's mining operations generated approximately 5,700 BTC in 2013 and 69,000 BTC the following year, according to the document.
By the time its chips were to be embedded into Internet of Things (IoT) devices, 21 projected its cost to produce 1 BTC could be as low as $7.45. |