Jack Dorsey Leads $6.2M OCEAN Funding Round to Decentralize Bitcoin Mining

On Nov. 28, Mummolin announced that it had raised $6.2 million in seed funding led by Jack Dorsey for its new initiative called OCEAN, which aims to decentralize Bitcoin mining.

OCEAN is launching as a transparent, non-custodial Bitcoin mining pool where miners get paid directly from the coinbase transaction instead of pools controlling funds.

This eliminates the risks of pools withholding payments or having undue influence over miners, according to the announcement.

Decentralized Bitcoin Mining

The platform derives its motivation from solving issues around the centralization of mining pools, custodianship of funds, and lack of transparency in the industry.

Bitcoin Core developer and Mummolin co-founder Luke Dashjr said, “The role of mining pools must change for Bitcoin to exist as a truly decentralized currency.” He added:

“OCEAN is a new type of pool that enables miners to be truly miners again. 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.”

“Our contribution to OCEAN comes out of a deep respect for their mission,” added Jack Dorsey.

Coming up next – special announcement from @LukeDashjr. Tune in to watch live!https://t.co/fIZbYNEetf

— OCEAN (@ocean_mining) November 28, 2023

By offering transparency and a mechanism for miners to be paid directly by Bitcoin itself, “we make the network radically more robust,” added OCEAN’s Global Head of Sales, the pseudonymous ‘Bitcoin Mechanic.’

After it launches, OCEAN plans to enable independent block template construction so miners can participate in the pool while still constructing their own blocks.

Jack Dorsey also noted, “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.”

The platform plans to launch additional phases of Bitcoin decentralization improvements and upgrades in 2024.

Earlier this month, CryptoPotato reported on the solid performance of Jack Dorsey’s payments firm, Block.

Bitcoin Mining Ecosystem Outlook

According to Blockchain.com, Bitcoin mining is dominated by four major pools.

The largest is AntPool, with 38% of the network hash power, followed by Foundry USA which has 23% of the hash power distribution over the past 24 hours.

The third largest mining pool is F2Pool, with 9%, followed by ViaBTC, which also has a 9% share. Binance Pool is the fifth largest, with 6.25% of the hash power distribution.