The conflict over Bitcoin's future is reaching its peak. Luke Dashjr, who stepped down as chairman and technical director of the OCEAN pool, is officially launching his own hard fork of the network. The split from the main chain will occur as early as Tuesday, September 1. This event will be a key test for the entire ecosystem: whether the alternative branch can attract real computing power or repeat the fate of previous failed attempts.
Reasons for Dashjr's departure from OCEAN
Dashjr's exit was not sudden—it was preceded by a sharp conflict within the pool. In August, OCEAN's hash rate collapsed by 96%, and the pool itself redirected clients' power to a secondary network for 18 hours. Miners did not consent to such actions and demanded a change in leadership.
The attempt to launch the BIP-110 soft fork, aimed at combating spam, failed: activation required support from 55% of miners, but only 2.53% was gathered. After two blocks, the network stalled, and supporters switched to the September fork.
Hard fork plan: BLAKE2b and decentralization
Dashjr claims that Bitcoin lost decentralized block assembly several years ago. Switching to the BLAKE2b mining algorithm, in his view, will close the ASICBoost vulnerability that gives large players a speed advantage. He also believes this will prevent the concentration of computing power in a few hands.
However, critics do not share his optimism. Adam Back called BIP-110 "idiocy," and former Ripple CTO David Schwartz characterized the claims of an attack on the network as absurd. Dashjr, for his part, insists that the main chain is centrally controlled, and he has now focused on the CONVOY project—his second attempt to restore decentralization to mining. OCEAN will continue to operate as a non-custodial pool.
Bitcoin by September 1: price and hash rate
At the time of analysis, BTC was trading around $77,655, down 0.6% over the day, but the cryptocurrency has risen 23.3% over the month. The network's hash rate has been declining all year: miners are leaving due to artificial intelligence contracts. This trend reduces the number of devices the split chain can attract.
Holders face two key questions. The first is the risk of replay attacks, when a transaction passes through both networks simultaneously. The second is how to determine which network your wallet is tracking. Dashjr recommends using a lightweight wallet rather than a full node. Both questions already arose during the August network split.
Change the Proof-of-Work consensus algorithm, and a separate coin emerges. And which of the two networks retains value will be decided by the market itself.
Dashjr's previous attempt to launch a fork did not gather even 3% support. Therefore, September 1 will be another test: either real power will switch to BLAKE2b, or the previous scenario will repeat—and everything will fizzle out within a few hours.
My analysis: Given the current hash rate level and mining consolidation, the likelihood of this fork's success is extremely low. The market has repeatedly proven that value is created not by technological manifestos but by real adoption. Keep an eye on your wallets and do not panic—in the short term, the main network will remain dominant.