OCEAN Hashrate Collapses by Over 96% Amid BIP-110 Fork Disaster

Bitcoin mining pool OCEAN is facing a major crisis after it was revealed that some users' hashrate was redirected to a failed minority chain, BIP-110, without their explicit consent. The incident lasted approximately 18 hours and resulted in significant financial losses for the affected miners.

OCEAN acknowledged that its Stratum templates may have directed miners to the BIP-110 chain despite selecting the non-BIP-110 option. This has led to widespread criticism from the Bitcoin mining community, with Blockstream CEO Adam Back calling the move 'unacceptable' and demanding that the financial losses be deducted directly from OCEAN co-founder Luke Dashjr's salary.

The controversy has sparked a broader debate about transparency, miner autonomy, and the influence pools hold over Bitcoin's block construction process. The incident has also highlighted the risks of pool-controlled mining templates, where individual miners may own their hardware but pools often determine which transactions their machines include and which chain they support.