Block, a subsidiary of payments company Square, has announced that it has completed the design of a high-performing bitcoin mining application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) using five-nanometre semiconductor technology. The company's initial plan had been to conduct a full tape out of this design this quarter, but, pending regulatory approval, it has instead acquired a large volume of bitcoin mining ASICs from Intel, which it says will accelerate its system development and enable it to get to market more quickly. As a result, the company can now focus its design team on cutting-edge, three-nanometre ASIC development.