OCEAN co‑founder Luke Dashjr has formally departed the Bitcoin mining pool, stepping down as chairman, chief technology officer and director after reaching a mutual separation agreement with parent company Mummolin Inc. The exit, announced Aug. 29, also included Mummolin repurchasing all of Dashjr’s equity; neither side disclosed the repurchase price or his prior ownership stake. In a joint statement, OCEAN and Dashjr attributed the split to “different visions for the future of Bitcoin mining following the recent protocol developments.” The statement did not specify which protocol changes sparked the disagreement, and it’s unclear whether a single proposal or a broader divide drove the parting. Dashjr has been a visible participant in public debates over transaction policies, mining decentralization and alternative Bitcoin software, but the companies said no further details would be released at this time. Dashjr had already reduced his involvement with OCEAN earlier in August. With his departure now finalized, he is removed from the company’s leadership and ownership structure. OCEAN has not named a replacement for chairman or CTO, nor explained how Dashjr’s technical duties will be reassigned. Dashjr said he will pursue a new venture called CONVOY, which the joint statement framed as a continuation of his mission to decentralize Bitcoin mining. At publication there was no official website, technical documentation or launch timetable for CONVOY, and the statement did not indicate whether the project will operate a mining pool, develop mining software, or take another infrastructure approach. Background on OCEAN and context - OCEAN launched in 2023 to give miners greater visibility into block templates and to deliver block rewards directly to miners through a non‑custodial system. Its model is designed to reduce central control over payouts and transaction selection. - The company operates as Bitcoin Ocean LLC, a subsidiary of Wyoming‑based Mummolin, and raised $6.2 million in a 2023 seed round led by Jack Dorsey and other investors. - OCEAN later introduced DATUM, a protocol intended to let individual miners construct their own block templates while still participating in pooled mining, aiming to limit the control that large pool operators exert over transaction selection. - In April 2025, Tether committed mining hashrate to OCEAN, including capacity from operations in Africa and other regions; OCEAN has not announced any change to that arrangement after Dashjr’s exit. What’s next OCEAN said it will continue serving miners through its transparent, non‑custodial pool and reported no interruption to service, custody events or changes to its payout system tied to the separation. The company now faces questions about its leadership structure and technical roadmap, and has not set deadlines for naming successors or clarifying how core responsibilities will be handled. For his part, Dashjr — who previously founded the early mining pool Eligius before helping to launch OCEAN — appears to be taking his decentralization agenda forward independently with CONVOY. Concrete details about CONVOY’s team, architecture, mining policies or funding have not been provided, and the split leaves the underlying technical disagreement between Dashjr and OCEAN unresolved. There was no verified market reaction directly attributable to the announcement. Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news