Ocean Mining denies censorship allegations amidst Bitcoin transaction controversy

• Bitcoin wallet provider Samourai Wallet accuses Ocean mining pool of censoring transactions.
• Ocen Mining was specifically accused of censoring Whirlpool CoinJoin and BIP47 notification transactions.
• Ocean’s founder, Luke Dashjr, denies intentional censorship, attributing the issue to a bug in Samourai Wallet’s software.

In a recent twist within the cryptocurrency space, one of the Bitcoin wallet providers Samourai Wallet has accused Ocean, a prominent BTC mining pool, of censoring specific Bitcoin transactions.

The controversy involves not only technical accusations but also points fingers at industry figures, including Luke Dashjr, a Bitcoin Core developer and founder of Ocean.

We can confirm that @ocean_mining has enacted a policy of censoring Whirlpool coinjoin transactions and BIP47 notification transactions as of Dec 6, 2023

This is a regrettable action by the operators @jack and @LukeDashjr and far surpasses any hostile action we have seen before

— Samourai Wallet (@SamouraiWallet) December 7, 2023

Ocean’s denial and counterclaim

Ocean mining pool swiftly refuted Samourai Wallet’s allegations, asserting that the perceived censorship is not a deliberate policy but, rather, a bug within the wallet provider’s software. Luke Dashjr dismissed the claims and suggested that the responsibility lies with Samourai Wallet to rectify the issue on their end.

This is a bug in your software, not an intentional policy on our end. Why are you exceeding the standard 42 byte datacarrier size?

What is this data even for? I’ve looked at trying to workaround it, but can’t find any technical details.

In any case, you should fix it on your…

— Luke Dashjr (@LukeDashjr) December 7, 2023

The technical disagreement revolves around a purported 46-byte limit imposed on the OP_RETURN function, restricting certain transactions.

Community divided over the accusations

The crypto community finds itself divided on this matter. While some advocate for the “80 Bytes is 80 Bytes” standpoint, emphasizing adherence to technical specifications, others believe that the alleged censorship may be unintentional and advise Samourai Wallet to address the bug in their software.

Brad Mills from Nostr Wallet weighed in, asserting, “There’s no policy to censor Whirlpool or privacy-preserving transactions.”

This is sensational. There’s no policy to…