Tether Partners With OCEAN To Decentralize Bitcoin Mining
1min read Tether, the stablecoin issuer with a market capitalization of $144 billion, has announced a strategic partnership with ocean to enhance the decentralization of the Bitcoin network. This move is part of Tether’s broader initiative to reduce reliance on dominant centralized mining pools and promote a more distributed mining ecosystem. The collaboration involves allocating both Tether’s current and future Bitcoin mining hashrate to OCEAN’s decentralized mining pool, which aims to shift the dynamic of block production through its open-source DATUM protocol. This protocol allows miners to build their own block templates independently, thereby boosting censorship resistance and reducing dependency on centralized intermediaries.
Tether’s partnership with OCEAN includes deploying the DATUM software across all of its global mining operations, including facilities in Latin America. This deployment will enable Tether to generate unique block templates on-site and aggregate thousands of mining rig connections with low-latency performance, promoting operational and geographic diversity. The initiative aligns with Tether’s $500 million mining investment, which was announced in late 2023, and is part of the company’s efforts to safeguard Bitcoin against centralizing forces.
Despite its ambitious goals, OCEAN currently holds a modest share of the Bitcoin mining market, producing between 0.2% to 1% of Bitcoin blocks. In contrast, major mining pools like Foundry USA, AntPool, and ViaBTC collectively mined over 66% of all blocks during the same period. OCEAN’s hashrate reached 18.3 exahashes per second over the past 24 hours, while Foundry USA dwarfed that figure with more than 298 EH/s. OCEAN is backed by industry figures such as Block CEO Jack Dorsey and has relocated its headquarters to El Salvador in May 2024. The partnership with Tether is expected to strengthen OCEAN’s competitiveness and help achieve its decentralization goals within the Bitcoin ecosystem.
This strategic move by Tether underscores the growing trend of decentralization in the Bitcoin mining industry. By partnering with OCEAN, Tether aims to mitigate the risks associated with centralized mining pools and promote a more resilient and decentralized Bitcoin network. The deployment of the DATUM protocol across Tether’s mining sites in Latin America is a significant step towards achieving this goal, as it allows for the generation of unique block templates and the aggregation of mining rig connections with low-latency performance. This initiative not only enhances the operational and geographic diversity of the mining process but also aligns with Tether’s broader mission to safeguard Bitcoin against centralizing forces.
