Decentralized Bitcoin mining pool OCEAN raises over $6M in seed funding

OCEAN, a brand new decentralized Bitcoin mining pool, introduced that it had raised $6.3 million in seed funding from numerous sources on Nov. 28. The seed funding spherical is notably led by Jack Dorsey, co-founder and CEO of Block Inc. and in addition a co-founder and former CEO of Twitter/X.

Dorsey mentioned in a press release:

“Our contribution to OCEAN comes out of a deep respect for his or her mission … OCEAN is fixing an issue for Bitcoiners that I feel all of us really feel – additional centralization of swimming pools and mining swimming pools that might plague Bitcoin, and the way that dangers a bunch of Bitcoin attributes that we maintain expensive.”

Different contributors to the seed spherical embody Confederate, Barefoot Bitcoin Fund, MoonKite, NewLayer Capital, and the Bitcoin Alternative Fund.

OCEAN is operated by Mummolin, Inc., an organization that describes itself as a successor to the Eligius Bitcoin mining pool that ran between 2011 and 2017. Luke Dashjr, who presently serves because the co-founder of Mummolin Inc., additionally created Eligius, which was meant to offer a decentralized strategy to Bitcoin mining.

OCEAN introduced the information on the Way forward for Bitcoin Mining Convention on Nov. 28. Although the pool seems to be operational, the corporate mentioned it should launch new decentralization enhancements and upgrades in 2024.

Few decentralized mining swimming pools exist

Bitcoin mining swimming pools enable particular person miners to mix their computing assets and collectively compete with bigger mining corporations that dominate the observe.

Although quite a few Bitcoin mining swimming pools exist, not all mining swimming pools use reward constructions that enable for direct payouts. Mummolin co-founder and President Mark Artymko defined that conventional mining swimming pools gather block rewards and transaction charges earlier than distributing them to miners, introducing the potential for withheld payouts.

OCEAN, in contrast, will depend on non-custodial payouts which are despatched to taking part miners instantly from block rewards. OCEAN additionally affords some further transparency options, that are detailed in additional element on its web site.

Whereas OCEAN is main on this new route, it isn’t alone. Different initiatives, like Foundry USA Pool, use a non-custodial escrow course of for mining reward payouts. Proposals for federated mining swimming pools or “fedipools” additionally exist.