Bitaxe is a fully open-source Bitcoin mining hardware project with no company or formal organization behind it—just a decentralized community of developers and contributors. Every aspect of the design is transparent: hardware schematics, PCB layouts, and firmware are publicly available for anyone to inspect, audit, or modify. This radical transparency means there are no hidden backdoors or proprietary code that users must blindly trust.
The project emerged from the Open Source Miners United (OSMU) community, which promotes decentralized, transparent mining hardware development. Because Bitaxe is mining hardware rather than a custodial service, it never holds your private keys or Bitcoin—your funds remain in your own wallet at all times. Security is determined by your own setup rather than trusting a third party with custody.
The community has demonstrated responsible security practices. When a CSRF vulnerability was discovered in early 2024 that could allow attackers on the same network to change mining pool settings, the maintainers quickly released a firmware patch and publicly communicated upgrade instructions. Build quality depends on your chosen vendor or your own assembly from open designs.
