OCEAN Mining Pool Excludes Ordinals Transactions
OCEAN, a Bitcoin mining pool supported by Jack Dorsey, has updated its mining software to exclude Bitcoin ordinals transactions. Ordinals is a protocol for issuing NFTs and alternative tokens on the Bitcoin network. The online Bitcoin community has been divided on the impact of ordinals, with some seeing it as beneficial for the network and others viewing it as a burden. Luke Dashjr, CTO of OCEAN and a Bitcoin core developer, believes that ordinals exploit a vulnerability in Bitcoin Core and spam the blockchain. OCEAN’s latest upgrade aims to fix this vulnerability.
The Impact of Ordinals on Bitcoin
Ordinals activity has caused Bitcoin’s transaction fees to increase and network settlement times to slow down. Last month, Bitcoin’s transaction fees reached as high as $19 each due to the large data size of ordinals-related transactions. This surge in activity has also made Bitcoin’s transaction fee revenue comparable to that of Ethereum. However, high fees have attracted miners who benefit from them. Some experts question whether OCEAN can attract miners by excluding these lucrative fees.
Can OCEAN Succeed Without Ordinals?
While some believe that OCEAN will struggle to gain significant market share without offering high fees to miners, OCEAN sees its decision as an opportunity to provide honest miners with blocks full of real transactions. The mining pool aims to decentralize the concentrated mining industry and charges 0% fees. Currently, two mining pools control over 50% of Bitcoin’s total hash rate.
Hot Take: Jack Dorsey-Backed Mining Pool Takes Stand Against Ordinals Transactions
OCEAN, backed by Jack Dorsey, has made a bold move by excluding ordinals transactions from its mining software. While ordinals have sparked controversy within the Bitcoin community, OCEAN’s decision to address the vulnerability exploited by ordinals has garnered attention. The impact of this move on OCEAN’s market share and its ability to attract miners remains to be seen. However, OCEAN sees an opportunity to offer real transactions to honest miners while decentralizing the mining industry. As Bitcoin continues to evolve, debates around protocols like ordinals will shape the future of the network.