The mining pool co-founded by Luke Dashjr has announced the integration of payouts through the BOLT 12 specification: non-custodial payments even for smaller miners.
Ocean, the mining pool supported by Jack Dorsey and led by developer Luke Dashjr, has introduced a new feature: offering miners compensation via the Lightning Network, using the BOLT12 technology.
BOLT 12 is a Lightning Network specification proposed by Blockstream developer Rusty Russell. BOLT 12 introduces the concept of an “offer,” a type of invoice containing information such as the recipient node ID, the minimum amount, the currency, and other data. The offer can be static and reusable, unlike current BOLT 11 invoices. Additionally, BOLT 12 allows for not disclosing the recipient node address of the payment thanks to blinded paths and the creation of human-readable addresses without the use of a web server, TLS certificate, or Domain Name System.
With the introduction of BOLT 12, miners will be able to attach a BOLT12 offer to their Bitcoin address and receive payments via Lightning. Miners will need to sign a message containing the offer using the private key associated with their Bitcoin address.
Regarding this innovation, Luke Dashjr explained:
“Pools traditionally have held miners’ bitcoins like a bank, while on-chain Bitcoin transactions get increasingly expensive as the demand for Bitcoin rises. For small miners, the problem is exacerbated since in some cases the cost of the transaction fee is higher than the reward that they earn. This is unsustainable because it creates lock-in to custodial pools. OCEAN helps overcome this risk using Lightning.”
Ocean is the first mining pool to make use of BOLT12. The goal is to increase decentralization and miner sovereignty and promote greater transparency.
Since its launch, Ocean has offered reward payments in a non-custodial manner, access without KYC procedures, and the ability for miners to choose block templates.
