Qi Hardware and Qiware Granted to Phi

Miner Arch by Matt Hope

Matt Hope, Miner Arch, 2020, Used Bitcoin Miners.

The state of world in 2024 is in constant flux, augmented by a rapidly changing technological and cultural ecosystem. Qi Hardware began as an ethos to make the most “Open” Computer. And, that effort came from the OpenMoko project which is one of the world’s first smartphone and the first “Open” mobile phone.

In a story that is not really written down, yet which traces are on the web, Qi Hardware came back to life in order to save Proof-of-Work in the Ethereum ecosystem with news and efforts. Qi Hardware relaunched the Scale Journal as Scale Publishing.

Upon the successful completion of that effort (for a time), pre-pandemic, but as close as one might get to a pandemic, Qi Hardware attempted to lay roots in Shenzhen with the event Cryptology, a combination of workshops, realtime artwork creation and fellowship. A key collaboration during this event is the community led creation of the Miner Arch by artist Matt Hope, built from used Canaan Avalon Bitcoin Miners. Qi Hardware rebranded as Qiware.

However, while we pushed, fatigue from the earlier events in Hong Kong and the emerging Covid pandemic, were real and the impact of the event was felt by participants. The people at that event were far ahead on predicting the state of the world over the next 2-3 years.

Into the Pandemic, Qiware’s Scale Publishing released a collection of works from Wuhan, then launched the first NFT book and NFT journal as NFKey.

Now, as the next state of Qi Hardware and Qiware, Fabricatorz Foundation is granting these projects and their history to Phi who are building upon the technology and culture developed by Qi Hardware. Scale Publishing will remain with Fabricatorz Foundation.