Luke Dashjr has resigned as chairman and chief technology officer of Bitcoin mining pool OCEAN, and the pool has repurchased all of his equity. The split was abrupt, and Dashjr's language since has been blunt: he now refers to the main Bitcoin chain as 'Spamcoin.' The departure sets up a September 1 hard fork that switches to the BLAKE2b mining algorithm, which existing Bitcoin machines cannot run.
The split over BIP-110
Dashjr's exit follows a bitter fight over BIP-110, the anti-spam soft fork he championed. The proposal needed 55% miner support to activate, but signaling peaked at 2.53%. The BIP-110 chain stalled after two blocks, and its backers regrouped around the September breakaway coin.
OCEAN's hashrate fell 96% in August. The pool had routed customer power to a minority chain for about 18 hours, and miners demanded leadership changes. Dashjr is now channeling his efforts into CONVOY, which he frames as a second run at decentralized mining.
Why BLAKE2b matters
Dashjr argues that Bitcoin lost decentralized block construction and that BLAKE2b removes ASICBoost, which gives large miners an efficiency edge. He says Spamcoin operates under centralized management, does not allow miners to build their own templates, and that DATUM has no purpose on it.
Critics aren't buying it. Adam Back called BIP-110 'idiocracy' in July, and David Schwartz dismissed the 'network under attack' claim as nonsense.
A hashrate collapse
OCEAN continues to operate as a non-custodial pool, but the numbers are stark. Hashrate has drifted lower all year as miners leave the network for artificial intelligence contracts. Bitcoin trades near $77,655, down 0.59% on the day, but has gained 23.3% this month.
Holders face replay risk and the question of which chain their wallet tracks. Dashjr recommends a light wallet over a full node.
What September 1 tests
Dashjr's previous fork attempt never cleared 3% support. The September 1 test is whether real hashrate follows BLAKE2b or the split repeats the August stall and freezes within hours.
