According to a report by BlockBeats on November 22, Bitcoin developer 0xB10C noted that six Bitcoin transactions from addresses sanctioned by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) appeared to be intentionally excluded by certain mining pools. These transactions were not included in the mining process, which points to possible intentional filtering.
During September and October 2023, 0xB10C's investigative tool indentified missing transactions from OFAC-sanctioned addresses in blocks mined by ViaBTC, Foundry USA Pool, and F2Pool. On further exploration, 0xB10C noted that the missing transactions from ViaBTC and Foundry USA pools might be false positives, and not the result of intentional filtering. However, the situation with F2Pool is suspect, as the absence of transactions in four of its blocks presumes purposeful filtering.
The developer noted that the filtered transactions are larger transactions that consolidate multiple inputs into a single output, and included at least one input from an OFAC-sanctioned address. The discovery underscores the complex relationship between Bitcoin network participants and regulatory compliance, specifically relating to sanctions.
