F2Pool censored four transactions in October, leading to questions surrounding Bitcoin\u2019s censorship resistance.<\/p>\n
The Bitcoin<\/a> community is up in arms after news broke that a non-US mining pool was excluding OFAC-sanctioned transactions.<\/p>\n Pseudonymous Bitcoin developer 0xB10c posted<\/a> on Nov. 20 that his mining pool observer project had flagged six excluded transactions during September and October. Although two of these (from the ViaBTC and Foundry pools) were likely false positives, he wrote, four transactions were excluded from blocks.<\/p>\n This appears to be the first time a non-U.S. actor has complied with U.S. sanctions and has drawn many to speculate about whether the Bitcoin blockchain is, in fact, censorship-resistant.<\/p>\n The F2Pool mining pool, which is based in China, although it sources hashrate from all over the world, was singled out as the firm excluding the OFAC-sanctioned transactions.<\/p>\n One of its co-founders, Chun Wang, confirmed the news<\/a> when he posted on Twitter that the filtering patch had been disabled. He said it\u2019s only temporary \u201cuntil the community reaches a more comprehensive consensus on the topic.\u201d<\/p>\n Who the actual addresses belong to remains to be seen, despite Wang\u2019s now-deleted social media post stating he \u201chas every right to not confirm any transactions from Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping.\u201d<\/p>\n Wang refused a request for comment from The Defiant.<\/p>\n OFAC-compliant blocks are not uncommon in the broader crypto ecosystem, however.<\/p>\n According to MEV Watch<\/a>, 32% of Ethereum blocks are OFAC-compliant, down from a yearly peak of 51% in August. Towards the end of last year, the blockchain hit an all-time high of nearly 80%.<\/p>\n Censoring transactions is a touchy topic in the crypto ecosystem, and the news of F2Pool excluding transactions caused many renowned names to speak up about the situation.<\/p>\n Start for free<\/a><\/div>\n Ari Paul, renowned crypto investor and CIO of BlockTower Capital, wrote today<\/a> that although the transactions did get mined, he called the possibility of censored transactions like the aforementioned by F2Pool a \u201ccredible risk.\u201d<\/p>\n His views were echoed by crypto researcher Chris Blec, who reckons this is just the beginning, claiming<\/a> that more censorship is inevitable. The solution? \u201cVote with your feet,\u201d he said, urging miners not to support the pool.<\/p>\n Both also encouraged users to focus on mixing services and privacy tools as helping to fight back against these types of situations. It might be difficult, however, given recent moves by governments around the world that aim to ban these types of platforms.<\/p>\n\u2018Credible Risk\u2019<\/h2>\n
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Privacy-Preserving Tools<\/h2>\n