Terms of Service

OCEAN Team

November 28, 2023

OCEAN

(Last Updated November 28, 2023)

PLEASE READ CAREFULLY—THIS IS A BINDING CONTRACT AND CONTROLS YOUR INTERACTIONS WITH OCEAN.

This OCEAN User Service Agreement (“Agreement”) is entered into between Bitcoin Ocean, LLC, a Wyoming company with an office at 1603 Capitol Ave, Suite #509A, Cheyenne Wyoming, 82001, United States, and its affiliates (“we,” “us,” or the “OCEAN”) and you, the OCEAN User (“you” or “User”), and are the terms of service between you regarding respective rights and obligations to the Services as defined below.

By choosing to access and use the Services provided by OCEAN, you represent and agree that this Agreement will be legally binding on both parties. We recommend that you read this Agreement completely as this Agreement will be binding to the fullest extent of the law.

The Services. In exchange for the Fees defined below, OCEAN will provide the services described here: operating the ocean.xyz website (“Website”) and OCEAN’s own system to provide the User with Bitcoin network mining services by and through communicating between you, the Bitcoin network, and other OCEAN and Bitcoin network participants to help you and others pool your proof-of-work to earn Bitcoin network rewards and obtain Bitcoin network transaction fees as part of mining blocks. Although we do not represent you or the Bitcoin network directly, we will endeavor to provide or refuse services in the form and manner of cooperation that we believe is best for you and the Bitcoin network in our absolute discretion (collectively, the “Services”).
Modifications to this Agreement. We are continuously developing and trying to make the OCEAN and the Services rendered better and reserve the right to change this Agreement or any policy or other terms referenced in this Agreement (collectively, “Additional Policies”). You agree that OCEAN has the right to modify the terms of this Agreement or Additional Policies at any time. We will tell you about the changes by publishing the changes online or by any other reasonable means. As we may update and make changes to this Agreement, we encourage you to review it periodically. Your continued use of the Services provided by OCEAN will be deemed your acceptance and consent of the latest version of the Agreement.
Payouts to Users—the TIDES system. The Bitcoin network will normally make payouts to Users directly as part of its mining reward and incentive structure (“Payouts”). This is a feature not a bug. So, rather than take custody of your expected Bitcoin earnings like many other pools, OCEAN remains non-custodial, and uses the Bitcoin network's elegant and straightforward design to communicate with the Bitcoin network and Users to coordinate transactions and Payouts, if any, using OCEAN’s innovative Transparent Index of Distinct Extended Shares system (“TIDES”).
Warning Regarding Payouts and Risks of Bitcoin Mining Generally: The User understands that not all mining activity results in a successful Reward. Bitcoin mining is an inherently risky activity. Most mining activity on OCEAN will not succeed in the short term, meaning it results in payments from the Bitcoin network to others who are not using OCEAN. That said, any block successfully mined by OCEAN and its Users will be paid consistent with OCEAN’s published TIDES formula.
Fees. OCEAN has the right to charge fees for Services. The standard fee for Services rendered is 2% of all Bitcoin network rewards and transaction fees per block found with help from OCEAN (successful “Block Reward”), less any incentives or promotional offers in effect for User at the time a block is found (“Total Fee”).
Privacy. The Services here are Permissionless, meaning that you do not and cannot create an account or reveal customer or personally identifiable User information as a condition of use, except one or more Bitcoin addresses and the underlying data supporting communication and verification of proof-of-work. Do not use a Bitcoin address with OCEAN that you do not have the private keys for. Do not reveal your private key or Bitcoin address information to us or anyone else. You are solely responsible for maintaining the confidentiality and security of your private information and for all activities that occur on or through your wallet addresses. OCEAN shall not be responsible for any losses arising out of the unauthorized use of your private keys.
Limited Data Collection. By design, OCEAN collects very little data—only what is necessary to provide our core services: mainly public wallet addresses, and sometimes IP addresses, if available, or similar analytical data which customers are delegating from, together with worker name appends. All other data surfaced is public blockchain data or derived from it. Unlike most pools, OCEAN will not collect, store, use, or disclose your personal information. OCEAN maintains a Privacy Policy, which is fully integrated and adopted herein as part of this Agreement. OCEAN recommends that you exercise privacy best practices, including not reusing wallet addresses and not revealing any personal information in the name(s) of your worker appends. We also recommend PGP and similar standards, and our public keys are available for encrypted communications about OCEAN. Similarly, if you choose to communicate with us either directly or by chat, we will have some record of who we are speaking to and the timing, content, and context of those discussions whether they are personal, commercial, or technical. But we do not want your information and will not keep it indefinitely. Other than the sharelog, which we deem essential, all unrelated and non-essential information will be deleted from time-to-time pursuant to our internal records retention policies. We collect, process, and store your personal data only for the above defined purposes of providing the Services and only as needed to fulfill these purposes. We never conceal the purpose for which the data is collected and processed.
User Qualifications and Conditions. To use OCEAN, the User represent and warrants to OCEAN as follows, which said representations and warranties will be treated as repeated each time you use the Services:
1. You are an individual or entity and have the required power to form a binding contract and perform your obligations under this Agreement under applicable laws and regulations;
2. You have legal capacity to enter into this Agreement and your obligations here are binding;
3. You are using the Services only for your own benefit and not the benefit of a third-party, unless you are the lawful agent of that third-party and may lawfully bind that third-party under this Agreement;
4. You agree to use the Service only for purposes permitted by this Agreement, and only to the extent permitted by any applicable law, regulation, or generally accepted practice in the applicable jurisdiction, whether civil or criminal, affecting you or prohibiting you from mining bitcoin in the State of Wyoming or the United States or accessing the internet in the applicable jurisdiction you are located within at the time you use these Services;
5. You cannot be a person barred from receiving the Service under the laws of the United States or other applicable jurisdictions, including the country in which you reside or from where you use the Services; and
6. You are not subject to any economic sanctions programs administered or enforced by the United States, or any country or government or international authority, including, but not limited to, the US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, the US Department of State. By accepting this Agreement, you represent that you understand and agree to the foregoing.
User Responsibilities and Conditions Continued. To use OCEAN, the User must be mining Bitcoin and shall bear the entire cost and responsibility for: (1) “mining” equipment, including, but not limited to, hardware (computers or ASICs), and the power / electricity costs for running the hardware; (2) internet access, including, but not limited to, internet access fees to communicate with OCEAN and access the Website; (3) any other costs associated with or incidental to mining Bitcoin.
Term, Termination and Suspension.
1. Term. The term of this Agreement (“Term”) will continue so long as you use the Services rendered here and will survive, in limited part, for OCEAN to fulfill its payment obligations to you, if any.
2. Voluntary Termination by You. You may stop using the Services at any time. If you choose to terminate, you may forfeit one or more payouts depending on the proof-of-work verified at the time of your termination. Notwithstanding anything in this Agreement to the contrary, under the TIDES system you will typically continue to receive Payouts, less Total Fees, for an average of eight solved blocks following your voluntary termination.
3. Termination by OCEAN. If OCEAN terminates your right to Services for you violating the terms under this Agreement or based on OCEAN’s good-faith belief that you are violating or attempting to violate the terms of this Agreement, then you shall have no further rights under this Agreement. OCEAN will notify you of any such termination in real-time by removing your Bitcoin addresses from the OCEAN system. Notice of general discontinuance of Services will be provided as set forth here, unless it would not be reasonable to do so due to circumstances arising from legal, regulatory, or governmental action; to address user security, user privacy, or technical integrity concerns; to avoid service disruptions to other users; or due to a natural disaster, a catastrophic event, war, pandemic or other similar occurrence outside of OCEAN’s reasonable control.
4. Effect of Termination. Upon termination under Section (c) above, you shall forfeit all expected Rewards and Payouts, which may be redistributed to other Users in OCEAN’s sole and absolute discretion.
Restricted Uses Generally.
1. NO INTERFERENCE WITH PROPER FUNCTIONING. You may not interfere or attempt to interfere in any way with the functionality or proper working of the Services.
2. NO DIRECT MARKETING OR ADVERTISING. You may not use the OCEAN Services or any other information obtained through the Services for the purpose of direct marketing, doxing, spamming, unsolicited contacting of sellers or customers, or other impermissible advertising, marketing or other activities, including, without limitation, any activities that violate state or federal anti-spamming laws and regulations.
3. OTHER PROHIBITED ACTS. On top of the acts prohibited in Sections (i) and (ii), Your use of the Services may not: (i) constitute, promote, facilitate or DDoS, hacking, or block withholding attacks; (ii) include, promote or facilitate child pornography or other illegal activities, including, without limitation, activities that might be libelous or defamatory, or otherwise malicious to any person or entity; (iii) distribute, share or facilitate the distribution or sharing of unauthorized data, malware, viruses, Trojan horses, spyware, worms, or other malicious or harmful code; or (iv) violate, misappropriate or infringe the intellectual property or other proprietary rights of Company, its affiliates or any third party.
No Right of Survivorship. Unless required by law, you agree that your rights under this Agreement are non-transferable and that any rights terminate upon your death or dissolution if you are an entity.
No Resale of Service. You agree that you will not reproduce, copy, duplicate, sell, resell, rent, or trade the Website or Services under this agreement (or any part of it) for any purpose.
License to Use the Company Properties.
1. Company Properties. We may make available to you, for your installation, copying or use in connection with the Services, from time to time, a variety of software, data and other content and printed and electronic documentation (all such materials called the “Company Properties”). Subject to your acceptance of this Agreement, ongoing compliance with its terms with respect to the subject Service, and payment if and as required for your right to use the subject Service, we hereby grant to you the right to install, copy and use the Company Properties solely in connection with and as necessary for your use of the Services in compliance with this Agreement. This grant constitutes a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable license during the Term of this Agreement. In no case may you transfer or sublicense any rights granted to you under this Section to third parties. Provided Properties may grant additional rights beyond those listed herein.
  
  The Company Properties may include, without limitation:
  - Proprietary application programming interfaces (“APIs”);
  - Developer tools for use in connection with the APIs;
  - Articles and documentation for use in connection with the use and implementation of the APIs or other application materials (collectively, “Documentation”);
  - Specifications describing the operational and functional capabilities, use limitations, technical and engineering requirements, and testing and performance criteria relevant to the proper use of a Service and its related APIs and other technology;
  - Other forms of digital content, data, text, images, logos, user interface designs and other creative designs, audio and video (with the Documentation, collectively, “Company Content”);
  - Sample source code which we may make available from time to time for use in connection with the Services (“Sample Source Code”); and
  - Software libraries created by us in connection with the Services (“Libraries”).
  Except as may be expressly authorized under this Agreement or other agreements with the Company:
  1. You may not attempt to, or in any way: modify, alter, tamper with, repair, or otherwise create derivative works of any software included in or accessed via the Company Properties.
  2. You may not attempt to, or in any way: reverse engineer, disassemble, or decompile the Company Properties or the Services or apply any other process or procedure to derive the source code of any software included in or accessed via the Company Properties.
  3. You may not edit Documentation in any way that materially alters the meaning of the Documentation or causes the Documentation to become factually incorrect or misleading.
2. Restrictions With Respect to Use of Marks. Your use of any trademarks, service marks, trade names, logos, and other designations of Company and its affiliates or licensors, including, but not limited to, the OCEAN word mark, OCEAN logo, ocean.xyz mark, or Eligius word mark (“collectively, Marks”) shall strictly comply with these provisions. Other than as specified in this Agreement, you may not use any trademark, service mark, trade name or other business identifier of Company or its affiliates unless you obtain Company's or its affiliates' prior written consent, which consent shall be at Company’s sole and absolute discretion. In addition, you agree not to misrepresent or embellish the relationship between us and you, for example by implying that we support, sponsor, endorse, or contribute money to you or your business endeavors.
3. Permitted Use. You may use the Marks as part of the display of the Company Content and for showing that your bitcoins were mined using the Services. You must immediately discontinue use of any Mark as specified by us at any time in writing. We may modify any Marks provided to you at any time, and upon notice, you will use only the modified Marks, and must discontinue use of the old marks.
Uptime, Downtime and Excluded Service Suspensions; Security.
1. Uptime. OCEAN will use commercially reasonable efforts to make the Services available as much as possible. If OCEAN does not meet its goals, it reserves the right, but not the obligation, to pay you and other Users a service credit or offer other promotional incentives to continue using the Services.
2. Downtime. Apart from our rights to terminate or suspend Services to you as described above, you acknowledge that your access to and use of the Services may be temporarily suspended throughout any unanticipated or unscheduled Downtime or unavailability of any portion or all of the Services for any reason, including as a result of power outages, system failures or other interruptions. OCEAN recommends you keep your miners configured with a failover/fallback Service (including solo mining) in order to avoid any potential loss as a result of downtime.
3. Security. We strive to keep the Website and all private data secure, but cannot guarantee that we will succeed at doing so, given the nature of the internet. Accordingly, without limitation, you acknowledge that you bear sole responsibility for adequate security, protection and backup of your wallet and personal information. We urge you, where available and appropriate, to (a) use encryption technology to protect your privacy from unauthorized access, (b) keep your hardware and software applications or any apps that you use or run with our Services current with the latest security patches or updates. We will have no liability to you for any unauthorized access or use, corruption, deletion, destruction, or loss of any data or bitcoins.
Non-Assertion. During and after the term of the Agreement, with respect to any of the Services that you elect to use, you will not assert, nor will you authorize, assist, or encourage any third party to assert, against us or any of our customers, end users, vendors, business partners (including third party sellers on websites operated by or on behalf of us), licensors, sublicensees or transferees, any patent infringement or other intellectual property infringement claim related to such Services.
Disclaimer & Limitations on Liability.
1. General Disclaimer of Warranties. THE MARKS, THE SERVICES AND ALL TECHNOLOGY, SOFTWARE, FUNCTIONS, CONTENT, IMAGES, MATERIALS AND OTHER DATA OR INFORMATION PROVIDED BY US OR OUR LICENSORS IN CONNECTION (COLLECTIVELY, THE "OFFERINGS") ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” & “WHERE IS” AND WE AND OUR LICENSORS MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED, STATUTORY OR OTHERWISE WITH RESPECT TO THE OFFERINGS. EXCEPT TO THE EXTENT PROHIBITED BY APPLICABLE LAW, WE AND OUR LICENSORS DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, SATISFACTORY QUALITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, QUIET ENJOYMENT, AND ANY WARRANTIES ARISING OUT OF ANY COURSE OF DEALING OR USAGE OF TRADE. WE AND OUR LICENSORS DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE OFFERINGS WILL FUNCTION AS DESCRIBED, WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE, FREE OF HARMFUL COMPONENTS, OR THAT THE DATA YOU STORE WITHIN THE OFFERINGS WILL BE SECURE OR NOT OTHERWISE LOST OR DAMAGED. EXCEPT AS SPECIFIED IN SECTIONS 7 and 8 OF THIS AGREEMENT, WE AND OUR LICENSORS SHALL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY SERVICE INTERRUPTIONS, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, POWER OUTAGES, SYSTEM FAILURES OR OTHER INTERRUPTIONS, INCLUDING THOSE THAT AFFECT THE RECEIPT, PROCESSING, ACCEPTANCE, COMPLETION OR SETTLEMENT OF ANY PAYMENT SERVICES. NO ADVICE OR INFORMATION OBTAINED BY YOU FROM US OR FROM ANY THIRD PARTY OR THROUGH THE SERVICES SHALL CREATE ANY WARRANTY NOT EXPRESSLY STATED IN THIS AGREEMENT. YOU AGREE THAT ANY EFFORTS BY US TO MODIFY OUR SERVICES SHALL NOT BE DEEMED A WAIVER OF THIS GENERAL DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES. THE ENTIRE RISK ARISING OUT OF USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THE SERVICES REMAINS WITH YOU.
2. No Liability for Your Content and Applications. No Liability for Your Content and Applications. Besides the foregoing, we specifically disclaim all liability, and you shall be solely responsible for the development, operation, and maintenance of information (such as Bitcoin addresses and worker information) and for all materials that you enter into or that are housed on our Services.
3. No Liability for Third Party Websites. The Website or the Services may contain links to websites that are not under our control (“Third Party Sites”). We are not responsible for the contents or functionality of any Third Party Sites or any website that can be accessed via links on any Third Party Site. We provide these links to you as a convenience and the inclusion of any such links does not constitute or imply our endorsement or validation of any Third Party Site.
4. Limitations of Liability. NEITHER WE NOR ANY OF OUR LICENSORS SHALL BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES OF ANY KIND, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, DAMAGES FOR INTERRUPTION OF BUSINESS, LOSS OF PROFITS, GOODWILL, USE, DATA OR OTHER LOSSES (EVEN IF WE HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES, SUCH DAMAGES WERE REASONABLY FORESEEABLE TO US, OR WE WERE GROSSLY NEGLIGENT) IN CONNECTION WITH THIS AGREEMENT, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY SUCH DAMAGES RESULTING FROM: (i) THE USE OR THE INABILITY TO USE THE SERVICES; (ii) THE COST OF PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS AND SERVICES; OR (iii) UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO OR ALTERATION OF YOUR CONTENT. IN ANY CASE, OUR AGGREGATE LIABILITY UNDER THIS AGREEMENT SHALL BE LIMITED TO THE AMOUNT PAID BY YOU TO US UNDER THIS AGREEMENT FOR THE SERVICES OR ANY ELIGIBLE SERVICE CREDITS, AS OUTLINED IN SECTION (b).
  
  SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF CERTAIN WARRANTIES OR THE LIMITATION OR EXCLUSION OF LIABILITY FOR INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES. ACCORDINGLY, SOME OR ALL OF THE ABOVE EXCLUSIONS OR LIMITATIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU, AND YOU MAY HAVE ADDITIONAL RIGHTS. IN SUCH JURISDICTIONS, OUR LIABILITY IS LIMITED TO THE GREATEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW.
Indemnification.
1. General. You agree to indemnify, defend and hold us, our affiliates and licensors, each of our and their business partners and each of our and their employees, officers, directors and representatives, harmless from and against any and all claims, losses, damages, liabilities, judgments, penalties, fines, costs and expenses (including reasonable attorney’s fees), arising out of or in connection with any claim relating to (i) your use of the Services in a manner not authorized by this Agreement, or in violation of the applicable restrictions, Additional Policies, or applicable law, including, but not limited to, any claim involving infringement or misappropriation of third-party rights or the use, development, design, manufacture, production, advertising, promotion or marketing of your content uses on the Website or elsewhere, (iii) your violation of any term or condition of this Agreement or any applicable Additional Policies, including, without limitation, your representations and warranties, or (iv) you or your employees' or personnel’s negligence or willful misconduct.
2. Notification. We agree to promptly notify you of any claim subject to indemnification; provided that our failure to promptly notify you shall not affect your obligations under this agreement unless our failure to promptly notify you materially prejudices your ability to defend the claim. At our option, you will have the right to defend against any such claim with counsel of your own choosing (subject to a conflicts assessment), and to settle such claim as you deem appropriate as long as you shall not enter into any settlement without our prior written consent and provided that we may, at any time, elect to take over control of the defense and settlement of the claim.
Disputes.
1. Injunctive Relief; Jurisdiction. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary, we may seek injunctive or other relief in any state, federal, or international court of competent jurisdiction for any actual or alleged infringement of Company's or any third party's intellectual property or proprietary rights. Any dispute relating in any way to your visit to the Company Website or to products or services sold or distributed by Company or its affiliates in which the aggregate total claim for relief sought on behalf of one or more parties exceeds $10,000 shall be adjudicated in any state or federal court in Wyoming and you consent to exclusive jurisdiction and venue in such courts.
2. Governing Law. The validity, construction, performance, and enforceability of this Agreement and the rights of the parties under this agreement shall be governed in all respects by the laws of the State of Wyoming, without reference to the choice of law principles. The Wyoming Chancery Court shall be the exclusive venue for, and have exclusive jurisdiction over, the parties with respect to any matter arising out of or relating to this Agreement. The parties agree to a waiver of any objection for such venue, or any objection to jurisdiction of the Wyoming Chancery Court and expressly acknowledge and agree that the Wyoming Chancery Court conducts non-jury trials, alternative dispute resolution methods and limited motions practice and shall have broad authority to shape and expedite discovery as provided in the rules adopted by the Supreme Court of Wyoming to govern the Wyoming Chancery Court. The parties hereby mutually agree to irrevocably and knowingly waive to the fullest extent permitted by law any right to a trial by jury in any action or proceeding arising out of this Agreement.
Notices. Unless this Agreement provides otherwise, notices made by us to you under this Agreement that affect our customers generally (e.g., notices of updated fees, etc.) will be posted on the Website. Notices made by us under this Agreement for you or your account specifically (e. g., notices of breach or suspension) will be provided in absentia to you by removing your from OCEAN Services, the Website, or any future Block Templates or combination of these actions.

For notices made by you to us under this Agreement and for questions about this Agreement or the Services, you may contact Company at legal@ocean.xyz or by personal service to the OCEAN’s Registered Agent:

Vcorp Agent Services, Inc.
2232 Dell Range Blvd Ste 200
Cheyenne, WY 82009 USA
Miscellaneous Provisions.
1. Third Party Activities. If you authorize, assist, encourage or facilitate another person or entity to take any action related to the subject matter of this Agreement, you shall be deemed to have taken the action yourself.
2. Severability. If any portion of this Agreement is held by a court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid or unenforceable, the remaining portions of this Agreement will remain in effect, and any invalid or unenforceable portions shall be construed in a manner that most closely reflects the effect and intent of the original language. If such construction is not possible, the provision will be severed from this Agreement, and the rest of the Agreement shall remain in full force and effect.
3. Waivers. The failure by us to enforce any provision of this Agreement shall in no way be construed to be a present or future waiver of such provision nor in any way affect our right to enforce such provision or any other provision in this Agreement thereafter. All waivers by us must be in writing to be effective.
4. Entire Agreement. This Agreement incorporates by reference all policies and guidelines posted on the Website, including all Additional Policies, and constitutes the entire agreement between you and us regarding the subject matter hereof and supersedes all prior or contemporaneous representation, understanding, agreement, or communication between you and us, whether written or oral, regarding such subject matter. This Agreement may only be amended or modified by a written agreement signed by authorized representatives of OCEAN.
5. Survival. In the event this Agreement is terminated for any reason, the provisions of this Agreement which by their sense and context should survive any termination or expiration of this Agreement, including, without limitation, Sections 10-21, which will survive any such termination.
6. No Endorsement. You understand and acknowledge that we are not certifying nor endorsing, and need not certify or endorse, any of your Applications or Your Content.
7. Relationship. Nothing in this Agreement is intended to or does create any type of joint venture, creditor-debtor, escrow, partnership or any employer/employee or fiduciary or franchise relationship between you and us (or any of our affiliates).
8. Language. All communications and notices to be made or given pursuant to this Agreement shall be in the English language.
9. Force Majeure. We shall not be liable under this agreement for any failure or delay in the performance of our obligations under this Agreement if such failure or delay is on account of causes beyond our control, including labor disputes, civil commotion, war, fires, floods, inclement weather, governmental regulations or controls, casualty, government authority, strikes, pandemics, epidemics, or acts of God, in which event we shall be excused from our obligations for the delay and for a reasonable time afterward.
10. Acknowledgment. By using our Website and Services, you signify and agree that you agree to be bound by the terms and conditions of this Agreement.