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 led a $6.2 million seed round in Mummolin, the parent company of Ocean, a new decentralized Bitcoin mining pool. according to An announcement was made on November 29th.
The seed funding will support the launch of Ocean, an initiative to decentralize and reinvent the Bitcoin mining process. The specific goal of this mining pool is to provide greater transparency into the mining process and enable miners to receive block rewards directly from Bitcoin rather than from BTC mining pools.
Mummolin co-founder and chief legal officer Ian Northon told Cointelegraph that the funds raised will be used for general corporate purposes. “Our cap table is private, but we are proud to have several OG Bitconers and other Bitcoin thought leaders supporting the project,” Northam said, adding:
“Our payment system TIDES is the abbreviation of Transparent Index of Distinct Extended Shares, which we believe is an upgrade and improvement of PPLNS and is much better than FPPS, especially relative to miners’ transaction fee income.”
Mummolin co-founder and long-time Bitcoin core developer Luke Dashjr believes that the role of mining pools must change for Bitcoin to exist as a truly decentralized currency.
“Ocean is a new type of mining pool that allows miners to become real miners again. We are launching the most transparent mining pool and the only non-custodial mining pool where miners can receive new block rewards directly from Bitcoin.” Dashjr said.
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Mark Artymko, co-founder and president of Mummolin, emphasized that traditional BTC mining pools exclusively keep block rewards and transaction fees before distributing them to miners. “This enables them to withhold payments from individual miners, whether by their own choice or as required by law,” Artymko said. He added:
“OCEAN pays non-custodial payouts directly to miners from block rewards, eliminating this risk and the undue influence of mining pools on miners.”
Dorsey, a staunch supporter of Ocean, believes the platform will solve the problems that may plague Bitcoin’s mining pools and further centralization of mining pools. He pointed out:
“When I saw a project that would be broadly beneficial to Bitcoin and personally beneficial to me and my company, it became an easy decision for me and I’m excited to be a part of it.”
The launch of Ocean was announced at the Future of Bitcoin Mining conference in the shadow of Barefoot Mining’s 150-year-old hydroelectric dam in rural South Carolina. Barefoot Mining is Ocean’s first customer to have completely repurposed the dam to convert excess energy into Bitcoin mining at scale.
The launch of Ocean is 139 days away from Bitcoin’s fourth halving event (expected to be April 17, 2024). After the halving, the current mining reward of 6.25 BTC per block will be reduced to 3.125 BTC, which will greatly reduce the incentive for Bitcoin miners.
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