Twitter (now X) co-founder and Bitcoin (BTC) advocate Jack Dorsey is backing a new BTC mining pool to help miners regain control of block rewards and transaction fees.
Dorsey has led a $6.2 million seed round for Mummolin, the parent company of the new decentralization Bitcoin mining pool called Ocean, according to an announcement on Nov. 29.
The seed funding will support the launch of Ocean, which is designed to decentralize and reshape the process of Bitcoin mining. The mining pool specifically aims to provide more mining process transparency and enable miners to receive block rewards directly from Bitcoin rather than from BTC mining pools.
Luke Dashjr, Mummolin co-founder and long-time Bitcoin Core developer, believes that the role of mining pools must change for Bitcoin to exist as a truly decentralized currency.
“Ocean is a new type of pool that enables miners to be truly miners again. We are launching as the most transparent pool and also the only noncustodial pool where miners are the recipients of new block rewards directly from Bitcoin,” Dashjr stated.
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Mummolin co-founder and president Mark Artymko stressed that traditional BTC mining pools take exclusive custody of block rewards and transaction fees before distributing them among miners. “This gives them the ability to withhold payment from individual miners, whether by their own choice or by legal requirement,” Artymko said, adding:
“OCEAN's non-custodial payouts directly to miners from the block reward remove this risk and the pool's undue influence over miners.”
Committed Ocean supporter Dorsey is confident that the platform will solve the problem of further centralization of pools and mining pools that could plague Bitcoin. He noted:
“When I see a project that is good for Bitcoin broadly, and that's also good for me and my companies personally, it becomes a simple decision for me and I'm happy to be a part of it.”
The launch of Ocean was announced at the Future of Bitcoin Mining Conference in the shadows of Barefoot Mining’s 150-year-old hydroelectric dam in rural South Carolina. Barefoot Mining, the first client of Ocean, has fully repurposed the dam, converting excess energy to Bitcoin mining at scale.
Ocean's launch comes 139 days before Bitcoin's fourth halving event, expected to occur on April 17, 2024. After the halving, the current 6.25 mining reward per block will drop to 3.125 BTC, significantly decreasing incentives for Bitcoin miners.
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