Tether plans to open-source Bitcoin mining OS; CEO says 'no need' for 3rd party vendors

Stablecoin issuer Tether plans to open-source its Bitcoin mining software, a move the company said would allow new miners to enter the market without relying on expensive third-party vendors.

By open-sourcing its Bitcoin Mining OS (MOS), “A horde of new Bitcoin mining companies will be able to enter the game and compete to keep the network safe,” Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said in a Monday X post. 

Ardoino described MOS as scalable and modular, “built with a peer-to-peer [Internet of Things] architecture at its core.” 

The new operating system will support existing mining infrastructure, including several containers and other power devices, he said. 

Ardoino said the project is expected to be rolled out by the fourth quarter of 2025.

The new project expands on Tether’s ongoing efforts to promote decentralization within the Bitcoin ecosystem. In April, the company partnered with the Ocean mining pool to help decentralize block building by committing its current and future hashrate to the protocol.

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Large Bitcoin miners have a significant advantage over smaller players due to their economies of scale, ability to negotiate favorable power contracts and increased hashrate. However, even these large players are diversifying their business strategy to remain competitive in a post-halving world.

Some miners have built large Bitcoin (BTC) treasuries to benefit from the asset’s price appreciation during the bull market, while others have repurposed NGUs for artificial intelligence applications. 

For Hive Digital, revenue from AI workloads has generated significantly more income than crypto mining, which has prompted the company to invest more heavily in this area.

“Institutions are much more interested in us with our AI than Bitcoin,” Frank Holmes, Hive’s executive chairman, told Cointelegraph in September.

Still, some companies have gone all in on Bitcoin by shedding less competitive parts of their operations. Bitcoin miner Cango, for example, generated over $100 million worth of Bitcoin in just two months after selling off its legacy operations to focus solely on its mining business.

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