Yet despite underpinning network security this way, small mining players lack influence over things like allocation tracking and subsidy distribution.
A new project called OCEAN is emerging to even the playing field. Powered by $6.2 million in seed investment, their decentralized Bitcoin mining pool model upgrades miner autonomy and provides better transparency around ecosystem development.
OCEAN's seed round drew support from big names like Block CEO Jack Dorsey. Let's analyze the goals, structure, and significance of this web3 mining alternative as industry decentralization accelerates.
OCEAN Non-Custodial Pool Overview
OCEAN comes from Mummolin, a Wyoming-based company building open-access mining infrastructure. They created an innovative pool using smart contracts for more fair and transparent participant experiences.
Founders Luke Dashjr and Mark Artyushyn bring deep expertise as longtime mining contributors now out to curb ecosystem centralization risks. "We created OCEAN pool to transition power and oversight back into individual miners' hands using decentralization," says Dashjr.
So what sets their model apart?
Rather than siloed block reward distribution and opaque fee structuring seen at major pools, OCEAN offers two distinctions:
1. Non-Custodial Rewards
Miners receive payouts directly from the source when solving blocks instead of intermediary pooling: "OCEAN pays mining rewards straight from the Coinbase without pool custody of funds. This mitigates counterparty risks from centralized operators."
2. Democratic Block Production
Miners individually build & submit block templates for democratic selection based on hashrate allocation: "Giving miners transparency and participation around block creation checks centralized control."
In combination, OCEAN breaks dependency on specific pools governing everything top-down. Global collaboration expands through transparency and distributed governance.
Why Jack Dorsey and Investors Are Supporting OCEAN
When Mummolin closed its seed funding round, Block CEO Jack Dorsey topped the investor list through his company TBD/Apophis Ventures. Other Bitcoin-centric funds like NewLayer Capital and Barefoot Capital also participated.
Comments from Dorsey explain motivations to back OCEAN improving independent miner coordination: "Mining threatens re-centralizing when a few pools control block creation and distribution. OCEAN keeps miners decentralized as peers while mitigating extraction risks."
Supporters hope expanding community mining lowers infrastructure bottlenecks like:
- Opaque & inefficient subsidy allotments
- Centralized block production
- Censorship risks
- Counterparty hazards
"We invested in OCEAN because their vision aligns with our goals of spreading decentralized participation for Bitcoin to reach its full potential," added Barefoot Capital general partner Omeir Aziz.
Their vote of confidence plus capital fuels OCEAN's head start towards wider industry decentralization.
OCEAN Launch Set To Upgrade Bitcoin Mining Dynamics
The OCEAN mining pool has completed testing and will soon transition to mainnet activation, allowing decentralized participation at scale under a new codebase engineered for miner protections.
Creators framed the launch to remedy three core network pressure points:
I. Centralized Block Template Control
Today, BTC's transaction settlement process gets dictated by a handful of dominant corporately-run mining pools like Antpool, F2Pool and Foundry.
OCEAN allows parallel decentralized block building with hashrate-weighted template selection.
II. Opaque & Risky Reward Distribution
Common pooling models handle reward settlement internally off-chain first before releasing to miners.
OCEAN's transparent on-chain reward design removes opaque custody and counterparty perils.
III. Censorship Over Transaction Inclusion
Secret whitelists/blacklists or undisclosed conflicts of interest can determine transaction filtering policies at major pools.
OCEAN's democratic approach bases selections fully on hashpower.
The public launch will allow miners worldwide to leverage benefits unlocking more resilient operations critical for Bitcoin's grassroots ethos.
OCEAN mining pool arrives as the latest push towards sustaining Bitcoin's decentralization against corrosive consolidation forces. Support voiced by influential industry leaders indicates the urgency behind their approach upgrading baseline reliability for essential miners underpinning blockchain security guarantees.