{"id":36007,"date":"2021-02-08T11:20:59","date_gmt":"2021-02-08T09:20:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=36007"},"modified":"2025-08-29T04:10:23","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T01:10:23","slug":"slush-pool-says-it-does-not-interact-with-addresses-on-the-u-s-sanctions-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/slush-pool-says-it-does-not-interact-with-addresses-on-the-u-s-sanctions-list\/","title":{"rendered":"Slush Pool says it does not interact with addresses on the U.S. sanctions list"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The oldest Bitcoin mining pool, Slush Pool, has confirmed that it does not interact with cryptocurrency addresses on the OFAC sanctions list of the U.S. Treasury.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"und\"><a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/4mRroKYdyZ\">pic.twitter.com\/4mRroKYdyZ<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Mike Kelly (@mikekelly85) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/mikekelly85\/status\/1358513860567851009?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 7, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Coin Metrics analyst Karim Helmy explained that censorship applies only to payouts to miners who have attracted the close attention of U.S. authorities.<\/p>\n<p>Slush Pool does not engage in such practices for other transactions, as it is not a money transmitter, Helmy added.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Slush pool doesn\u2019t censor on-chain txs in any way, mining pools aren\u2019t money transmitters and processing OFAC txs isn\u2019t considered interaction. They just don\u2019t send payout txs to OFAC miners.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 karim helmy \ud83e\udd8c\ud83c\udfdd (@karimhelpme) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/karimhelpme\/status\/1358514067539828736?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 7, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Developer Bob McElrath criticized Slush Pool&#8217;s approach. In his view, attention to OFAC addresses could be followed by censorship of tax evasion, disclosure of undeclared private wallets, and transactions on the grey market. Ultimately, he says, any user would be at risk.<\/p>\n<p>McElrath urged resisting such actions and not letting miners become a division of financial intelligence, as banks have done.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">If you believe in censorship resistance as a value proposition, we need to push back hard on these ideas and reject them. While it may not affect you now, its use will be expanded until it does affect you.<\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t let miners turn into financial police as the banks have.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Bob McElrath (@BobMcElrath) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BobMcElrath\/status\/1358501188505919490?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 7, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>He is confident that such pools will be significantly less popular than their Chinese counterparts until the latter engage in censorship.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">It&#8217;s worth noting that these censorship-friendly mining pools Just Won&#8217;t Work as long as alternative pools like the chinese pools are still operating and not censoring. This is mostly about optics for regulated investment into mining.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Bob McElrath (@BobMcElrath) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BobMcElrath\/status\/1358503610204749829?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 7, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Earlier, the custodial service BitGo <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/bitgo-to-pay-fine-for-ofac-sanctions-violations\">paid an OFAC fine<\/a> after accusations that it provided services for its hot wallet to individuals in sanctioned countries.<\/p>\n<p>Follow ForkLog news on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/forklog\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Facebook<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The oldest Bitcoin mining pool, Slush Pool, has confirmed that it does not interact with cryptocurrency addresses on the OFAC sanctions list of the U.S. Treasury.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36008,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[686,915,26],"class_list":["post-36007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-sanctions","tag-slush-pool","tag-usa"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"13","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36007"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36007\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36009,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36007\/revisions\/36009"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}