Miner Rejects BIP-110 via Ocean Pool DATUM, Ignoring Default Support Amid Chain Split

Woofun AI reports that Simple Mining exercised independent block construction rights to reject Bitcoin Improvement Proposal-110, leveraging the DATUM protocol provided by its host pool, Ocean. This strategic deviation occurred as the network faced a bifurcation triggered by the proposal's supporters, yet Simple Mining chose to align with the main chain rather than follow the pool's default signaling stance. The action underscores a critical shift in operational control within pooled mining environments, where individual entities can now override collective pool decisions regarding protocol upgrades.

The specific execution of this autonomy was realized when Simple Mining produced block 961,634 on the main chain, a position two blocks past the critical split point where BIP-110 advocates diverged from the dominant network. On the social platform X, the company articulated its rationale by stating, "Hashrate is a vote you cannot fake," thereby framing their technical decision as a definitive economic signal. By utilizing Ocean's DATUM protocol, Simple Mining ensured that block 961,634 did not carry the activation signal for BIP-110, effectively casting a negative vote on the proposal through the immutable record of the blockchain. This precise manipulation of block content demonstrates how granular control over transaction inclusion and protocol signaling can be achieved even within traditional pooled mining structures.

Woofun AI data shows that, contextualizing the failure of the proposal, BIP-110 sought to prohibit the storage of non-financial data, such as images and text, within bitcoin transactions for a period of one year. Despite its objective to clean the blockchain ledger, the initiative garnered negligible support, with hashrate backing peaking at a mere 2.6% in July. This figure stood in stark contrast to the 55% threshold required for successful activation, highlighting a significant disconnect between the proposal's proponents and the broader mining community. The lack of consensus was further emphasized by the fact that Ocean pool, which had switched its miners to signal for BIP-110 by default, accounted for nearly all of the proposal's minimal mining support prior to the network split.

The technical mechanism enabling Simple Mining's divergence is the Ocean protocol known as DATUM, which fundamentally restructures the relationship between individual miners and their host pool. Traditionally, mining pools aggregate computing power from numerous operators to increase the frequency of block discovery and distribute rewards, while retaining centralized control over which transactions are included and what software signals are embedded. DATUM disrupts this model by returning decision-making authority to the individual miner, allowing an operator to build their own block using their own bitcoin software. Crucially, this independence is maintained while the miner continues to contribute computing power to the Ocean network and shares in the pool's financial rewards, creating a hybrid model of decentralized control within a centralized infrastructure.

The timeline of the chain split reveals the rapid collapse of the BIP-110 branch. Computers running the modified software began rejecting blocks without the BIP-110 signal at block 961,632, initiating the fork. According to the fork tracker Mempool, a miner using Ocean produced the first block accepted by the BIP-110 branch on Saturday, establishing the minority chain.

However, Simple Mining subsequently used the same pool to produce a block for the dominant bitcoin chain on Sunday, demonstrating the immediate practical application of DATUM. This dual usage by Ocean-affiliated miners explained the pool's presence on both sides of the conflict, as the protocol allowed for simultaneous, opposing strategic choices within the same organizational framework.

The outcome solidified the status of BIP-110 as a failed experiment. The minority branch managed to produce only blocks 961,632 and 961,633 before stalling completely, unable to compete with the main chain's consistent production of a new block roughly every ten minutes. By Monday, live monitoring data showed the main chain had advanced to block 961,725, placing the BIP-110 branch more than 200 blocks behind. Simple Mining confirmed the success of its strategy by noting that "the chain extended on our block," validating that the dominant bitcoin chain recognized their contribution. This event marks a definitive rejection of the proposal, illustrating that minor hashrate fractions cannot force protocol changes against the will of the majority network.