Samourai, a privacy-focused bitcoin wallet, revealed the changes in the recent Bitcoin Knots software used by Ocean, a Bitcoin mining pool, censor Whirlpool transactions, a kind of coinjoin operation. The wallet explained that Ocean is pursuing a “very slippery slope” by filtering these types of transactions.
Samourai Wallet Reveals Ocean Is Censoring Privacy Transactions
Samourai Wallet is alerting people about an anti-privacy movement in Ocean, a bitcoin mining pool. The organization recently revealed that the recent changes in Knots, a full Bitcoin node software used by Ocean, have resulted in the censorship of Whirlpool transactions, a kind of privacy operation used by wallet users.
Samourai denounced this behavior on X, stating that the actions carried by Ocean operator and Bitcoin developer Luke Dashjr and its main backer, Jack Dorsey, were “regrettable” and far surpassed “any hostile actions” seen before.
Dashjr implemented an Op_Return limit of 42 bytes, far less than Whirlpool transactions need to operate – 46 bytes. While Samourai declares these are standard transactions, Dashjr has alleged this behavior constitutes a bug in the Whirlpool implementation.
Implementing this change in the Bitcoin Core full node software, as hinted by Dashjr before, might render these transactions unminable, affecting the privacy movement in Bitcoin, even when alternatives are available. Samourai claims that Whirlpool surpassed the 9,700 BTC mark on December 6, almost twice the current capacity of the Lightning Network, Bitcoin’s second layer option.
Samourai Wallet called to reflect on the possible problems that enforcing these arbitrary limits might bring to the Bitcoin privacy-pursuing crowd. The organization stated:
Ocean is choosing to pursue a very slippery slope in their decision to exclude privacy-enhancing transactions.
At the same time, the Samourai team called for miners to direct their hash power to pools different than Ocean. “It is important for the market to make it absolutely clear to the pool that you do not agree with their privacy enhancing transaction censorship policy,” it stated.
Ocean has been involved in several controversies since it acknowledged it intended to filter transactions involving Ordinal inscriptions, which include images and other elements directly embedded in the Bitcoin blockchain.
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