Bitcoin mining pools are often discussed in terms of hash rate, fees, or payout schemes. But behind these surface metrics lies a deeper and far more critical issue: who controls block construction.
Over the past years, most large mining pools have quietly centralized one of Bitcoin’s most sensitive layers, the creation of block templates. This is precisely the problem Ocean was created to address.
Ocean is a Bitcoin mining pool, but not a conventional one. Its purpose is not to compete aggressively on short-term profitability or marketing reach. Instead, Ocean exists to rebalance power within the Bitcoin mining ecosystem by separating hash rate aggregation from block construction. In simple terms, Ocean challenges the idea that mining pools should decide which transactions make it into Bitcoin blocks.
Why Ocean Exists
Today, the majority of Bitcoin miners rely on large pools that provide pre-built block templates. These templates determine transaction ordering, fee selection, and ultimately which transactions are included or excluded. While this model is operationally efficient, it introduces systemic risk. If block construction is concentrated among a handful of actors, Bitcoin’s censorship resistance weakens, even if hash rate itself remains distributed.
Ocean was developed by Luke Dashjr and launched in 2023, with the explicit goal of reducing block construction centralization in Bitcoin mining. Its mission is to return block template control closer to miners, reducing reliance on centralized mempool policies and external block builders. Rather than optimizing for convenience, Ocean optimizes for resilience.
How Ocean Differs from Traditional Mining Pools
Most mining pools bundle together three roles: hash rate coordination, payout distribution, and block construction. Ocean deliberately breaks this pattern. Its architecture enables miners to participate in a pool without fully outsourcing block creation decisions. This separation matters because block construction is where economic and political pressures can manifest, whether through transaction filtering, regulatory compliance, or fee manipulation.
Ocean does not promise the highest payouts, nor does it claim to be the easiest pool to configure.
What it offers instead is a structural alternative: a mining pool aligned with Bitcoin’s long-term decentralization goals rather than short-term optimization.
Who Ocean Is For, And Who It Is Not
Ocean is not designed for every miner. It is unlikely to appeal to those solely focused on maximizing yield in the shortest possible timeframe. Instead, Ocean is built for miners who view their role as more than just revenue generation, miners who understand that hash rate is also governance, and that infrastructure choices shape Bitcoin’s future.
For miners who care about censorship resistance, protocol integrity, and minimizing systemic dependencies, Ocean represents a meaningful option. It is a pool for those willing to trade some convenience for structural soundness.
Why Ocean Matters for Bitcoin
Bitcoin’s security does not depend only on hash rate distribution. It also depends on who decides what a valid block looks like in practice. As mining becomes increasingly industrialized, preserving decentralization at the block construction layer becomes critical. Ocean contributes to this effort by offering a mining pool model that resists quiet consolidation of power.
Ocean should not be evaluated as a product alone, but as part of a broader conversation about Bitcoin infrastructure. It highlights a simple but often ignored truth: not all mining pools are equal in their impact on the network.
At Bitcoin Builder, we document tools and projects that shape Bitcoin beneath the surface, not just those that dominate headlines. Ocean is one of those projects.
