The Bitcoin mining pool OCEAN has announced it will compensate miners for losses incurred after a configuration issue led some operators to unwittingly mine on the BIP-110 chain despite selecting the 'non-BIP-110' option. This clarification came in response to a wave of critical feedback from the community, including allegations that the pool's default settings directed unallocated hash power from DATUM toward a stuck minority chain.
OCEAN confirmed that for approximately 18 hours, miners using its Stratum templates, believing their hash rate was directed to the 'non-BIP-110' chain, were actually contributing to the BIP-110 fork.
To ensure no miner is disadvantaged, OCEAN stated it will issue direct Bitcoin refunds, calculated based on the block rewards miners would have likely earned on the non-BIP-110 chain during that period.
"Approximately 0.3 BTC will be distributed, with refunds being issued within the next 72 hours. We will publish the transaction details once the payments are sent," OCEAN said in its update.
The pool added that its default endpoint has been restored to the non-BIP-110 chain, though both mining options remain available, allowing operators to choose where to direct their hash power.
This incident occurred amid a broader debate about how mining pools handle default settings during contentious network splits. As reported by Bitcoin.com News, on August 8th, the Bitcoin blockchain split into two chains: one implementing the BIP-110 proposal and the original mainnet. This split was the culmination of several weeks of heated debate between proponents of BIP-110, including Bitcoin developer Luke Dashjr, and critics such as Strategy Chairman Michael Saylor.
While many pools adopted a wait-and-see approach, OCEAN made the bold move of adding two new Stratum endpoints on July 8th: bip110.mine.ocean.xyz (port 3110) and http://no-signal.mine.ocean.xyz (port 3000). At the time, OCEAN presented these additions as an option for miners who could not use DATUM or needed a backup channel.
Following the split, critics like Bitcoin developer Peter Todd argued that OCEAN's default DATUM settings were automatically directing unallocated hash power towards the minority BIP-110 chain. Critics contended that this behavior unintentionally bolstered the minority chain's activity, especially in cases where miners relied on default templates rather than explicitly choosing a chain.
However, the pool appears to have responded to the criticism by announcing that the OCEAN stratum default endpoint would revert to the non-BIP-110 chain, and that miners using the default endpoint did not need to take any action. At that time, OCEAN added that both websites would remain active so clients could choose where to direct their hash rate.
