Ocean Pool vs. Classic Mining Pools

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Today's mining ecosystem is dominated by centralized pools with opaque fee models and tight control over block composition. A closer look at the technical details quickly reveals that traditional pools treat miners not as full participants, but rather as “hasher.” Decisions about content, fees, and filter rules are made by the pool, not the miner.

Ocean Pool breaks with this paradigm. Instead of control, Ocean promises genuine co-determination; instead of flat-rate payouts, it offers full transparency. In this article, we take a look at how Ocean makes this technically possible and what it means for your earnings.

Block templates: Who controls the content of your blocks?

The problem with traditional pools

In traditional mining pools, the block template, i.e., the compilation of transactions, is created centrally by the pool operator. As a miner, you simply submit hash attempts without having any influence on what exactly you are supposed to “mine.”

What does that mean in concrete terms?

• Censorship: Pools can deliberately omit certain transactions – such as ordinals, privacy transactions, or addresses that attract regulatory attention.
• MEV (Miner Extractable Value): Pools can favor themselves by introducing more profitable transactions or their own inscriptions.
• False sovereignty: Although you do the computing work, you have no say in what data goes into the blockchain.

That's why some people no longer refer to “miners” but rather “hashing service providers” – without control, without a say.

Ocean's approach: Two paths to true block sovereignty

Ocean makes block template creation an integral part of its mining philosophy. You have two options:

1. Your own templates via the DATUM protocol
   With the DATUM protocol (Decentralized Alternative Templates for Universal Mining), you can create your own block template with your own Bitcoin full node and use it for mining.

This gives you complete control – you decide what goes into your block.

2. Pool templates with policy selection
   Don't want your own node? No problem. Ocean offers four freely selectable implementations (policies) that define the criteria according to which transactions are filtered (e.g., maximum fees, ordinals support, Lightning focus, ESG criteria). Each policy is open source and fully documented. This means you retain control over the block content here as well.

Payout systems in comparison

Why FPPS pools are problematic

The Full Pay Per Share (FPPS) model sounds fair: you get a payout for every share, regardless of whether a block is found. In reality, it is an insurance system: the pool pays out in advance, even without a real block find. The costs are passed on – through higher fees, withheld transaction fees, or non-transparent structures.

You pay even if you cannot track your earnings in detail.

PPLNS and TIDES: Payout when a real block is found

PPLNS (Pay Per Last N Shares) is the transparent, block-based alternative: Only when a block is found is the payout made – proportionally according to the last valid shares.

Ocean goes one step further with the TIDES system (Transparent Index of Distributed Equity Shares).

All valid shares submitted are indexed, publicly documented, and counted exactly once – anyone can track the distribution.

There is one special feature:

Ocean only considers shares that were submitted in the last eight blocks before a block was found. This “share log window” means:

• Those who mine constantly are always represented in the settlement.
• Those who only mine sporadically or for a few hours at a time run the risk that their shares will have already “expired” by the time a block is found.

This is the key point: Ocean rewards long-term, continuous mining. Those who only activate their devices temporarily, e.g., when there is excess electricity, must be aware that not all shares will be taken into account.

Why “payout only when a block is found” is not a disadvantage

At first glance, this seems to be a step backward compared to FPPS models. However, the advantages are as follows:

• You receive 100% of the transaction fees instead of the pool retaining them.
• You don't pay an insurance margin – this is often hidden in traditional pools.
• You have full transparency: every fund and every payout is publicly traceable.

Practical example: Some permanent miners report up to 10% higher net returns compared to traditional pools with identical hardware and runtime.

Ocean vs. classic pools: A direct comparison

Feature	Ocean Pool	Classic Pool
Block control	Completely with the miner with DATUM or significant say	Mostly with the pool
Payout system	TIDES (block-based, public)	Mostly FPPS – occasional PPLNS
Fee structure	2% (1% with own template with DATUM)	0–3%, often non-transparent
Transaction fees	100% to the miner	Partially retained
Co-determination	High	Low to none
Suitability	Continuous operation, sovereignty	Short-term mining, predictability

Conclusion

Ocean Pool represents a new generation of Bitcoin mining: radically transparent, technically superior, and open to co-determination. It is not a pool for everyone—but for those who truly understand Bitcoin.
Those who run their devices continuously and value transparency, censorship resistance, and long-term returns will fare much better with Ocean than with traditional pools. Those who not only want to mine Bitcoin but also actively shape it will find Ocean to be a tool that remains uncompromisingly true to the Bitcoin ethos.