US bitcoin mining company Marathon Patent Group has admitted it was wrong to censor bitcoin transactions linked to illegal activities.
The idea of Marathon Patent Group, to censor bitcoins related to financial crimes and illicit transactions, was scrapped after seeing that its compliance efforts with the rules established by OFAC were not effective enough.
Fred Thiel, CEO of Marathon Patent Group, said that the company will not continue to censor the Transactions that are carried out with the cryptocurrency, citing its commitment to the Bitcoin crypto community and to the basic principles that govern the operation of this digital asset. Let us remember that Bitcoin (BTC) was born in 2009 as the world's first successful cryptocurrency and the first completely decentralized, inclusive and censorship-free alternative financial system.
Thiel also stated that to ensure the operation of his bitcoin mining pool, MaraPool, it is necessary that it works exactly the same as the rest of the active miners in this network.
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Freedom, the foundation of the Bitcoin community
At the beginning of May, Marathon reported that its MaraPool mining pool would be the first bitcoin miner to take the initiative to not process transactions that included bitcoins related to illicit activities or that were flagged by the state.
The company's decision, which it undertook of its own free will, led to the departure of several of its miners, who decided to leave the pool and move their hash rate to other companies, due to the low commissions that MaraPool received for the blocks mined after imposing said censorship.
At the time, Marathon stated that it would adhere to current U.S. laws and regulations regarding crypto, in particular, the anti-money laundering (AML) rules issued by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). However, despite the strict rules, one of the blocks mined by MaraPool ended up including a transaction from a Russian dark web marketplace, demonstrating how ineffective its attempts to censor Bitcoin were being.
Its decisions, which it claimed were made to ensure “clean bitcoins” that would minimize investor concerns, also sparked discontent within the crypto community; although now, almost a month later, the company argues that its actions went against the grain, and recognizes that they violated the basic principles with which Bitcoin was born: the freedom, inclusion and decentralization.
Marathon gets ready for Taproot
In addition to removing censorship on Bitcoin transactions, Marathon Patent Group is also supporting the activation of tap root from its mining pool, which controls 1,02% of the Bitcoin network's hash power.
Although MaraPool's support for Taproot activation is not yet reflected on the upgrade web portal, the company did issue a Press release this Monday to report that it has adopted and implemented version 0.21.1 of Bitcoin Core, which among other things, includes the activation of Taproot, an update that is designed to improve Bitcoin privacy and scalability, as well as lay the groundwork for future improvements to the functionality of this cryptocurrency and network. blockchain.
investment in bitcoin
In January of this year, Marathon invested 150 million in Bitcoin, as part of its treasury strategy for the reserve of value, and by mid-May reported on its financial results for the first quarter of the year. In its reportMarathon said it made a profit of $9,2 million, an increase of 1.550% compared to its profits in the first quarter of 2020, which barely exceeded half a million dollars.
The majority of the company's revenue comes from its bitcoin products and services, making it one of the largest Bitcoin self-funding companies in North America.
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