Block Winds Down TBD Web5 Initiative to Invest in Bitcoin Mining and Bitkey Self-Custody Wallet

TBD was split into two primary projects: “Web5,” which was described as “a new identity and trust layer for the internet,” and tbDEX

Block Inc (NYSE:SQ) announced in its Quarter 3 Shareholder Letter that it will be winding down TBD, its “Web5” initiative, in order to “invest in our bitcoin mining initiative… and Bitkey, our self-custody wallet for Bitcoin.”

Block had announced TBD last year, describing it as two primary projects: “Web5,” which was described as “a new identity and trust layer for the internet,” and tbDEX, which was supposed to be focused on “reimagining global payments and commerce.”

The “Web5” component was yet to be integrated into any significant projects, and the tbDEX project was yet to launch for any transactions.

Now, Block has announced that both projects will be discontinued in order to allow the firm to focus on other initiatives, which include its bitcoin mining project and Bitkey, a self-custody bitcoin wallet.

“We're winding down TBD, a Block initiative that we announced last year to build two projects: Web5 and tbDEX. Both projects were early-stage explorations. Web5 aimed to build a new identity and trust layer for the internet, while tbDEX set out to reimagine global payments and commerce.”, the letter reads.

“Over the past few months, our teams have been working hard and made a lot of progress. However, after careful consideration, we've decided to discontinue both projects and fully pivot Block's decentralized technology efforts to support bitcoin.”

“This decision will enable us to invest in our bitcoin mining initiative, which earlier this year announced it had finished development of its own mining chip that it intends to supply to Core Scientific (NASDAQ:CORZ). We also plan to continue developing Bitkey, our multi-signature bitcoin wallet that we launched late last year.”

Block had announced its bitcoin mining initiative earlier this year, announcing that it had finished development of its own mining chip, which it intended to supply to Core Scientific, one of the largest bitcoin miners in the United States.

The firm had announced plans to supply Core Scientific with approximately 15 exahashes/second of hashing power, which would represent approximately 70% of the approximately 21.8 exahasses/second that Core Scientific reported in its most recent investor update.

However, Core Scientific has not substantially deployed Block's chip, noting, “substantially all of the miners we own and host were manufactured by Bitmain.”

Meanwhile, BitKey, which was launched at the end of last year, is a multi-signature bitcoin wallet that integrates a hardware wallet and cloud recovery options. It is currently available for download on both iOS and Android devices.

Currently, the revenue for all these different projects is rolled into the “Corporate and Other” category on the filings with music streaming service TIDAL and this segment reported approximately $44 million in revenue for the last quarter, driven almost exclusively by subscriptions, presumably to TIDAL.