Tether, the issuer behind the world’s largest stablecoin, is taking a bold step into the heart of Bitcoin’s mining ecosystem . On April 15, the company announced plans to route both its current and future Bitcoin hashrate to OCEAN, a relatively new but ambitious mining pool built to combat centralization. The move marks a strategic pivot in Tether’s broader mission to reinforce Bitcoin’s decentralization at the protocol level. “Deploying hashrate to OCEAN aligns with both our mining investments and our broader mission to fortify Bitcoin against centralizing forces,” said Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino in a statement. Tether Bets on Open-Source Mining While Bitcoin’s hashrate remains broadly decentralized, the process of block construction has long been controlled by a handful of dominant pools — most notably Foundry USA, AntPool, and ViaBTC. These players together account for over 66% of mined blocks, raising concerns around potential censorship and protocol-level influence. That’s where OCEAN comes in. Founded by Bitcoin core developer Luke Dashjr in 2023, OCEAN introduces a novel approach via its open-source DATUM protocol. This software enables miners to independently build their own block templates, effectively bypassing centralized pool operators and enhancing censorship resistance. Mining Footprint to Power OCEAN Tether’s mining operations span Uruguay, Paraguay, and El Salvador — the latter being home to both its corporate headquarters and a growing Bitcoin ecosystem. With plans to invest $500 million into mining infrastructure announced in late 2023, Tether is now poised to channel significant computational power into OCEAN’s pool. The partnership means OCEAN’s DATUM protocol will now be deployed across the firm’s global fleet of rigs, even in geographically dispersed regions like rural Africa. This could also dramatically expand the reach and diversity of OCEAN’s network. “By enabling on-site generation of unique block templates and aggregating thousands of rig connections with low-latency performance, DATUM ensures global competitiveness,” Tether stated. OCEAN’s current hashrate hovers between 0.2% and 1% of total network output. It mined nine blocks in the past week — a far cry from Foundry’s 331. But with the stablecoin issuer’s support, that number may soon rise. Over the last 24 hours, OCEAN has recorded 18.3 EH/s in hashrate — and that figure is expected to climb. The post Tether Joins Forces with OCEAN Mining Pool to Boost Bitcoin Decentralization appeared first on TheCoinrise.com .
