Jack Dorsey Backs OCEAN To Launch Decentralized Bitcoin Mining Pools

Former Twitter (now X) chief and avid Bitcoin supporter Jack Dorsey has recently led a seed funding round for OCEAN, a protocol that's designed to decentralize bitcoin mining. The seed funding round raised $6.2million to set up the protocol's initiatives.

According to an official press release shared with CryptoDaily, this initiative for the OCEAN protocol was originally envisioned by Bitcoin Core dev Luke Dashjr and Mark Artymko, co-founders of Mummolin.

Announced at the Future of Bitcoin Mining Conference, the project introduces a new mining pool model that departs from traditional pools by enabling direct, non-custodial payouts to miners. This shows the project's commitment to and reinforcement of the decentralized ethos of Bitcoin.

"The role of mining pools must change for Bitcoin to exist as a truly decentralized currency," shares Dashjr. "We are launching as the most transparent pool and also the only non-custodial pool where miners are the recipients of new block rewards directly from Bitcoin," the developer and co-founder adds.

Luke Dashjr highlighted the need for a paradigm shift in how mining pools operate. OCEAN, according to Dashjr, is not just a pool but a means to restore miners to their original role in Bitcoin’s ecosystem. This approach is expected to counter the perceived centralization seen in the current mining pool sector, with the project's name itself given as a contrasting counterpoint to the "restrictive, permissioned nature of legacy pools," explains Bitcoin Mechanic, OCEAN's pseudonymous Global Head of Sales.

According to Bitcoin Mechanic, the project seeks to "disintermediate to the greatest extent possible" how pools (the legacy models, in this case) have relied on trusted third parties for permission to activate soft forks. This reliance has also extensively resulted into decisions for what gets into the blockchain restrictive. OCEAN is set to offer transparency frameworks and mechanism that allow miners to be paid directly by bitcoin, effectively boosting the chain's viability and making it more robust.

It appears that Jack Dorsey’s backing of OCEAN stems from a recogniltion of its potential to address centralization concerns in Bitcoin mining, the same concerns which he has been trying to address through his support for and leadership in other domains such as social networks and financial technologies, with previous projects such as Bluesky, Nostr, as well as what he currently heads at Block, formerly known as Square.

To Dorsey's mind, his support of and investment in the project is not only a business decision, but something that also aligns with his personal belief in the importance of maintaining Bitcoin's decentralized ethos.

"OCEAN is solving a problem for Bitcoiners that I think all of us feel - further centralization of pools and mining pools that could plague Bitcoin, and how that risks a bunch of Bitcoin attributes that we hold dear [sic] 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," Dorsey shared.

Echoing Dorsey’s sentiment, Barefoot Mining co-founder & CEO Bob Burnett shared that OCEAN's initiative into and prospects with the decentralization of Bitcoin mining will bring "new features and some badly needed diversity to the mining world." Barefoot Mining is OCEAN's first client and operates a Bitcoin mining facility in South Carolina that's powered by a 150-year-old hydroelectric dam.

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