OCEAN Mining Pool to Compensate Users After BIP110 Hash Rate Error

Bitcoin mining pool OCEAN has acknowledged that a configuration error caused a portion of its miners' hash rate to be unintentionally directed to the BIP110 chain for approximately 18 hours, and the pool has committed to compensating affected users. The incident, which occurred over the weekend, has drawn criticism from some miners and industry figures who argue the pool diverted computing power without explicit consent.

The misdirection happened after the Bitcoin blockchain fractured into two chains on August 8, following the activation of the BIP110 proposal. BIP110 is a proposed temporary soft fork aimed at limiting non-payment data, such as inscriptions and Runes, embedded in Bitcoin transactions for one year. Proponents argued it would reduce blockchain bloat, while critics viewed it as a contentious protocol change. Support for the proposal peaked at only about 2.6% of the network's hash rate, far below the 55% threshold it sought before mandatory signaling rules took effect.

According to OCEAN, the error occurred in the pool's default connection settings, which routed hash rate to the BIP110 chain. The pool stated that miners using its Stratum templates who believed they...