BIP-110 Fork Fails to Gain Support, Stalls After Two Blocks

The Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP)-110 faced a major setback over the weekend, stalling after producing only two blocks. The proposal, which aimed to restrict arbitrary data on the Bitcoin network, failed to gain the required miner support, leading to a split from the dominant chain.

The chain split occurred at block 961,632 when nodes supporting BIP-110 began rejecting blocks that did not signal support through version bit 4. This resulted in the creation of a minority chain that produced two blocks (961,632 and 961,633) before halting operations. In stark contrast, the dominant chain advanced to block 961,744, leaving the BIP-110 branch significantly behind.

Support for BIP-110 was minimal, with only 51 of the 2,016 blocks in the preceding difficulty period signaling for the proposal, far below the 55% threshold needed for activation. Prominent figures in the Bitcoin community, including Michael Saylor, criticized the proposal's failure, emphasizing that 99.85% of Bitcoin's hashpower remained on the main chain.

In response to the stalled fork, supporters of BIP-110, including its author Dathon Ohm, are now proposing a change to the proof-of-work (PoW) mechanism to challenge the dominance of existing mining pools. This move could lead to a more significant shift in the Bitcoin ecosystem, as it would require the establishment of a new mining environment.

The situation has also sparked internal debates among Bitcoin developers regarding the conduct of Luke Dashjr, a prominent supporter of BIP-110, with some calling for his removal from the BIP editorial team.

BIP-110 Fork Update

The BIP-110 fork has officially stalled after only two blocks, with its backers now planning to abandon Bitcoin's miners entirely. They are targeting September 1 for a proof-of-work change that would lead to the launch of a separate coin.

Support for BIP-110 peaked at just 2.53%, far below the required threshold. The proposal aimed to cap data sizes in transactions to push non-money content out of blocks.

After the fork's failure, the Bitcoin network is now over 240 blocks ahead of the stalled BIP-110 chain, which is frozen at block 961,633.

OCEAN, a mining pool involved in the fork, admitted to routing some customers' hashrate to the minority chain for about 18 hours without clear consent, leading to a 96% collapse in its reported hashrate.

The fallout has led to calls for leadership changes within OCEAN and a motion to strip Luke Dashjr of his BIP Editor role due to conflict-of-interest concerns.