The Ocean mining pool offers Bitcoin miners the opportunity to support the co-founders of Samourai Wallet.
On November 27, Ocean announced its support for the legal defense of Samourai Wallet‘s co-founders, who are currently facing federal charges. This gesture comes after moments of tension between the two teams, including accusations of transaction censorship directed at the mining pool.
Ocean has implemented a system allowing miners to contribute directly to the legal defense of Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill, developers of Samourai Wallet accused of conspiracy to launder money and operating an unauthorized money transfer service. Miners can now direct their hash power to a dedicated address, ensuring that all fees generated are donated to the legal defense fund.
This development is particularly significant given that in December 2023, Samourai Wallet publicly accused Ocean of censoring their CoinJoin and BIP47 transactions. The controversy, centered on technical differences in protocol implementation (Ocean initially used Bitcoin Knots as its default client), sparked heated debate within the community.
Meanwhile, the legal case against Samourai’s founders continues. During the latest hearing at the Southern District of New York court, the prosecution presented evidence allegedly including a “flight plan” found at Rodriguez’s residence, containing passports, cash, emergency communication devices, and wallet seed phrases. The defense argued that it was a general emergency preparedness plan, but the judge maintained bail restrictions, including house arrest.
The next hearing is scheduled for December 17, while the defense attorneys are still reviewing over 8 terabytes of evidence provided by the prosecution.
