Foundry

Bitcoin

In a significant development for the cryptocurrency market, there's increasing regulatory pressure on <a href="https://ultramining.com/news/en/russias-bitcoin-gold-rush-mining-machine-influx-outpaces-rest-of-the-world/">Bitcoin miners</a> to censor transactions. This stems from the need to filter out transactions connected to addresses with criminal ties, potentially leading to a new era of protocol-level censorship in Bitcoin.&nbsp; 
In the news <a href="https://www.theblock.co/post/267759/bitcoin-faces-risk-of-protocol-level-censorship-as-miners-under-increasing-regulatory-pressure">published</a> by The Block, a scenario is described in which major mining pools may begin to filter transactions from sanctioned addresses.This change is driven by the <a href="https://ultramining.com/news/en/senator-lummis-pushes-for-crypto-regulation-amid-sec-lawsuits/">U.S.</a> regulators' focus on the crypto industry. Ben Hutten, a partner at Orrick law firm, highlights that providing services to people on the sanctions list could lead to severe consequences for service providers, including miners. 
Miners like <a href="https://www.viabtc.net/signup?refer=533030">ViaBTC</a>, <a href="https://ultramining.com/en/ratings/f2pool/">F2Pool</a>, and <a href="https://ultramining.com/en/ratings/foundry/">Foundry</a> have shown early signs of implementing on-chain anti-money laundering measures. This includes the filtering of transactions from addresses previously sanctioned by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). While these instances seem isolated, they indicate a growing trend towards self-regulation in anticipation of stricter regulatory oversight. 
The implications of such censorship are vast. Economically, it doesn't benefit miners to reject transactions since they lose out on potential fees. However, compliance with U.S. regulations might become a more significant concern, outweighing economic incentives. If major mining pools agree to filter certain transactions, it could lead to delays in processing 'prohibited' transactions, potentially disrupting the Bitcoin network's efficiency. 
There's also the possibility of an unofficial consensus among miners to not only avoid mining OFAC-blacklisted transactions but also to orphan blocks containing such transactions. This could lead to significant chain splits and fundamentally alter Bitcoin's decentralized nature.

Bitcoin Miners Face Rising Pressure

Ultramining_Eng

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