Simple Mining mined a Bitcoin main-chain block without signaling for BIP-110, even though it was using Ocean, a mining pool that had supported the proposal by default. The episode highlighted how Ocean’s DATUM protocol can let individual miners choose their own block policy.
Simple Mining mined a Bitcoin main-chain block without signaling for BIP-110, even though it was using Ocean, a mining pool that had supported the proposal by default. The episode highlighted how Ocean’s DATUM protocol can let individual miners choose their own block policy.
Simple Mining said its block did not signal support for BIP-110 and that the main Bitcoin chain extended from that block. The company’s decision stood out because another miner using Ocean had produced the first block accepted by the BIP-110 branch, meaning the same pool appeared on both sides of the fork depending on the individual miner’s choice.
A Bitcoin miner using Ocean’s mining pool rejected BIP-110 over the weekend, producing block 961,634 on Bitcoin’s main chain without signaling support for the proposal. The miner, Simple Mining, said it used Ocean’s DATUM protocol to make its own decision rather than following the pool’s default support for BIP-110.
The development matters because it shows how some mining infrastructure can separate pool participation from block-policy control. Mining pools typically aggregate hashpower and decide which transactions and software signals appear in blocks, but DATUM lets individual miners build their own blocks while still contributing hashpower to Ocean and sharing in pool payouts.
BIP-110 sought to restrict the storage of pictures, text and other non-financial data inside Bitcoin transactions for one year. According to CoinDesk, Ocean had switched miners to signal for BIP-110 by default in July and accounted for nearly all of the proposal’s limited mining support before the split.
Simple Mining said its block did not signal support for BIP-110 and that the main Bitcoin chain extended from that block. The company’s decision stood out because another miner using Ocean had produced the first block accepted by the BIP-110 branch, meaning the same pool appeared on both sides of the fork depending on the individual miner’s choice.
BIP-110 nodes began rejecting non-signaling blocks at height 961,632 after support peaked at about 2.6% of hashrate, far below the 55% threshold the proposal sought. The minority branch produced two blocks before stalling, while Bitcoin’s main chain continued advancing and was more than 200 blocks ahead by Monday, according to a live monitor cited by CoinDesk.
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