Bitcoin Mining Pool Stirs Controversy by Censoring Transactions
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F2Pool, the 3rd biggest Bitcoin mining pool, was reported to be censoring transactions from a sanctioned address, stirring controversy around "censorship resistance".
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F2Pool co-founder Chun Wang appeared to confirm the reports, saying he refuses to confirm transactions for "criminals, dictators and terrorists".
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Chun later said Bitcoin should be censorship-resistant at the protocol level and disable the transaction filtering patch.
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The Bitcoin community backlash was very negative, with people saying "you don't do it" and to expect blowback.
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Censorship resistance is considered a core tenet of Bitcoin by many, so mining pools censoring transactions violates that ethos.