F2Pool,
the
third-biggest
Bitcoin
mining
pool,
drew
ire
on
social
media
after
a
report
that
it
might
be
censoring
transactions
from
an
address
subject
to
U.S.
government
sanctions.
One
of
the
F2Pool
project’s
leaders
subsequently
appeared
to
confirm
the
report,
stirring
up
controversy
since
“censorship
resistance”
is
considered
by
many
Bitcoiners
to
be
a
cardinal
principle
of
the
largest
and
original
blockchain.
At
the
same
time,
many
government
officials
around
the
world
have
expressed
concern
that
blockchain
networks
can
be
used
to
finance
criminal
activity
and
terrorism.
The
Bitcoin
development-focused
blogger
0xB10C
wrote
Nov.
20
that
his
“miningpool-observer”
project
“detected
six
missing
transactions
spending
from
OFAC-sanctioned
addresses.”
OFAC
stands
for
the
Office
of
Foreign
Assets
Control,
a
lead
agency
in
U.S.
government
efforts
to
enforce
economic
sanctions.
A
few
of
the
instances
“are
likely
false-positives
and
not
the
result
of
filtering,”
the
blogger
wrote.
“The
transactions
missing
from
F2Pool’s
blocks
are,
however,
likely
filtered,”
according
to
the
piece,
which
was
cross-posted
to
the
website
Stacker
News.
Bitcoin
mining
pool
A
Bitcoin
mining
pool
is
where
operators
working
to
confirm
transactions
on
the
network
join
together
to
coordinate
their
efforts
and
then
share
any
resulting
rewards
–
typically
with
the
goal
of
providing
a
steadier
income
stream.
Because
they
end
up
controlling
big
chunks
of
the
network’s
processing,
or
“hashpower,”
their
decisions
can
have
broad
ramifications.
And
participants
in
a
mining
pool
can,
relatively
easily,
switch
to
a
different
pool.
F2Pool
is
responsible
for
about
14%
of
mined
Bitcoin
blocks
over
the
past
year,
the
third-most
after
Foundry
USA’s
30%
and
AntPool’s
22%,
based
on
data
from
Blockchain.com.
F2Pool
co-founder
Chun
Wang
subsequently
posted
on
X
(formerly
Twitter),
“Why
do
you
feel
surprised
when
I
refuse
to
confirm
transactions
for
those
criminals,
dictators
and
terrorists?
I
have
every
right
not
to
confirm
any
transactions
from
Vladimir
Putin
and
Xi
Jinping,
don’t
I?”
The
post
has
since
been
deleted.
Chun
later
wrote
that
“a
censorship-resistant
system
must
be
designed
to
resist
censorship
at
the
protocol
level,
rather
than
relying
on
each
participant
to
act
conscientiously
and
refrain
from
censorship.”
“The
Internet
and
TCP/IP
have
failed
this,”
he
added.
“Bitcoin
should
learn
from
the
failure.”
A
couple
hours
after
that,
Chun
tweeted
again,
“Will
disable
the
tx
filtering
patch
for
now,
until
the
community
reaches
a
more
comprehensive
consensus
on
this
topic.”
The
term
“tx”
is
often
used
as
shorthand
for
“transaction.”
‘Expect
blowback’
Based
on
the
replies
on
X,
the
community
reaction
was
quite
negative.
“The
community
has
been
in
consensus
on
this
for
a
very
long
time.
You
don’t
do
it,”
one
poster
wrote.
“Expect
blowback,”
a
poster
wrote.
Another
jab
displayed
the
project’s
name
prominently
next
to
the
U.S.
Treasury
Department’s
seal: