It's time for Lightning⚡️ and it's time for BOLT12🔩
As of today, OCEAN miners can attach a BOLT12 offer to their #Bitcoin address and get paid out over Lightning!
BOLT12 offers allow us to request multiple invoices for any amount while only requiring the miner to set things up once.
Miners simply sign a message containing the offer using the private key associated with their Bitcoin address.
Using BOLT12 also allows us to prove to the world that a payment was made, the size of the payment, the node to which it was paid, and that it was paid by us.
This means we can continue to offer fully transparent and verifiable pooled mining while no longer being restricted by the base layer!
Using the Bitcoin stack to its fullest is how we eliminate the need for trust and bring sovereignty to mining.
ocean.xyz/merch
Announcing our merch store! Happy to be collaborating with @ProofofInk
for these awesome designs!
⚡Bitcoin and Lightning accepted ⚡
Happy halving!
We've added a template to our existing lineup which only includes transactions free of any known arbitrary data.
We're proud to be the only pool offering miners these choices as we work towards our goal of full decentralization.
In a FPPS pool miners don’t actually interact with #Bitcoin but rather they are treated like employees of the pool. nostr:npub1qtvl2em0llpnnllffhat8zltugwwz97x79gfmxfz4qk52n6zpk3qq87dze takes a different approach by giving sovereignty back to the miners. #MineWithOCEAN
We're proud to announce our new template - it will consist only of transactions approved by the US government.
⛏️~~Stats~~⛏️
Since launching in November, OCEAN has mined 28 blocks consisting of 175 newly generated coins and 9.29785518 BTC in transaction fees - a total of 184.29785518 BTC.
Those mining with OCEAN since launch are sitting at around 112% of the rewards they could expect from the well known alternatives.
Prior to OCEAN, almost all block rewards went to the same dozen addresses under the control of just a handful.
OCEAN added 33 more addresses to this as miners started choosing to get paid directly by the Bitcoin network in OCEAN blocks.
OCEAN's overall luck is 101% and 106.5% since the start of the year.🎰
Happy mining everyone💪
We're excited to be celebrating the upcoming halving in #Bitcoin country El Salvador with @HalvingPartyMF
and many awesome Bitcoiners.
To commemorate the event we'll be giving away a limited number of special edition T-shirts by @ProofOfInk
. Be sure to pick one up at our table while supplies last.
We're proud to announce the long awaited whitepaper for our innovative TIDES payout system. This can be implemented by any pool and sets a new standard for transparency and fidelity for miners wishing to verify their rewards.
ocean.xyz/docs/tides
Since setting sail on 11/28, we've been riding the waves of achievement:
🟧 15 Blocks Mined
🚀 Crossed and sustained over 1 Eh/sec
💰 100+ BTC Mined
🌊 Dive in with OCEAN in less than 60 seconds! 🏄
And checkout our new darkmode 👀
Happy New Year from all of us at OCEAN.
2023 was an historic moment for us. Resurrecting Eligius, bringing transparency to #Bitcoin mining, and beginning the journey to decentralized block template construction.
2024 is where the rubber meets the road and we’re stoked. We’re so grateful to our early miners who have supported us, and for those on the fence, we welcome any questions you have.
If you haven’t noticed, hashrate is growing 👀 and we’re thrilled to have found our 4th block today 🎉
In the pursuit of truth @PrestonPysh and @GrassFedBitcoin discuss the “why” behind OCEAN’s mission and answer some frequently asked questions. Great job gentlemen!
#Bitcoin
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXccoOlmtMY
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6BMvDwrGn9qQVugTRxPLwM?si=Y081yVk_QteC17bdonKUaA
Congratulations on block three to all OCEAN miners 🎉.
The miner used the standard template which filters spam and as a result block 823129 included ~1400 more real financial transactions that otherwise would have been left out in the cold. This is the cleanest block #Bitcoin has seen in ages.
From our families to yours, wishing everyone a Merry Christmas 🎄
A decentralized #Bitcoin is a Bitcoin where miners decide what goes in blocks, not pools.
OCEAN's ultimate goal is to make this a reality, and today we take one step closer to our vision of decentralized block template construction.
Available immediately, OCEAN is offering 𝗺𝘂𝗹𝘁𝗶𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗯𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗸 𝘁𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗽𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗲𝘀, giving miners control over what blocks they are mining.
The three options are:
1) OCEAN Recommended (most real financial transactions and least spam)
2) Bitcoin Core with the “Ordisrespector” spam filter
3) Unmodified Bitcoin Core (same as other pools with fewest financial transactions and most spam)
OCEAN will continue its 0% promotional pool fee for options 1 & 2 while there will be a competitive pool fee of 2% for option 3.
Our fees are structured to incentivize miners to make choices that benefit the Bitcoin network in the long term.
Suggestions for more templates? Let us know at mining@ocean.xyz.
We are happy to have sponsored Unconfiscatable 2023. Amazing job Tone Vays and Mel for putting on yet another high quality #Bitcoin conference and thank you for giving us the opportunity to talk about OCEAN.
In case you missed it, our very own Bitcoin Mechanic discusses what OCEAN is all about with Jimmy Song and Nico
https://www.youtube.com/live/7kS2T1mPtQU?si=1gaYlWaaH00_mf8A
The OP_RETURN discussion is not new and dates back to 2014 when Bitcoin Core 0.9.0 was released with the OP_RETURN policy included which was intended to discourage more egregious forms of spam. At that time, 40 bytes was the default max datacarriersize limit across all node implementations; this was and still is sufficiently large for tying data to a transaction (32 bytes for a hash and 8 bytes for a unique identifier). Core subsequently increasing the default to 80 bytes was an entirely voluntary decision and in no way contradicts the design objective that OP_RETURN creates a provably-prunable output to minimise damage caused by data storage schemes, which have always been discouraged as abusive. There are also other good technical reasons which I have chosen to retain the lower default in Bitcoin Knots, and no justification for increasing it.
It is not my intention, nor that of my team at
nostr:npub1qtvl2em0llpnnllffhat8zltugwwz97x79gfmxfz4qk52n6zpk3qq87dze, to filter coinjoins. These present an innovative tool for increasing Bitcoin’s privacy and, when constructed properly, coinjoins can easily stay within the OP_RETURN limit (indeed, there is no reason for them to have *any* OP_RETURN data at all). I have some ideas on how to alleviate the recent issue where some coinjoin transactions were flagged as spam from Knots v25, and I am willing, with the full resources of my team, to work collaboratively on a solution in good faith.
Bitcoin does and always has allowed nodes to set filters based on multiple sets of criteria and Knots v25’s defaults are IMO what is best for Bitcoin at this time. Others may disagree and that is ok. They are free to (and should) run their own nodes - it is good for Bitcoin to have more people running nodes, including miners, and there should be a natural diversity in node policies. As was stated before, OCEAN is on a path to decentralization and very soon we are going to be in a position where hashers will be able to fully participate as miners and perform the intelligent parts of mining such as deciding which version of node software to run and what filters or other policies to apply to block template construction.
OCEAN. It’s been up and running for just over a week. Our miners are elated that we’re finding blocks ahead of schedule and they’re getting paid above market returns. We are on a path to decentralization. This is a big step forward in how mining pools operate in #Bitcoin.
Our transparency model is working and provoking important discussions. For the first time in years, Bitcoin miners can see in real-time the underlying candidate block that they are committing their hashrate to BEFORE they do the work.
Our non-custodial model is distinguishing us from incumbent pools, and government regulators are now further away from our miners’ coins than they are with custodial pools. Over time, our TIDES payout system will ensure that dozens more miners receive bitcoins directly from the Bitcoin network instead of just a few centralized pool operators.
Decentralization does not happen overnight, but we are taking important steps in the right direction, ultimately putting miners back in control of the intelligent parts of mining via decentralized block template construction. We are working hard to make this a reality, and we owe our supporters and miners a sincere word of thanks for joining us early on in this journey.
We are happy to announce testing of Bitcoin Knots v25.1 has completed successfully, and is now deployed to production. Among other improvements, this upgrade fixes this long-standing vulnerability exploited by modern spammers. As a result, our blocks will now include many more real transactions and help to bring an end to the DoS attack being performed on the #Bitcoin network.
So, in addition to our already-established benefits (transparency, non-custodial, and permissionless), we now also offer honest miners the first easy option to contribute toward blocks full of real transactions, effectively a several times larger block size in terms of transaction confirmations, without actually making the blocks any larger.