Bitcoin hits block 961,632 as the controversial BIP-110 soft fork attempt begins
The proposal has scant support from bitcoin miners and influential commentators have also voiced their opposition.
Bitcoin has reached block 961,632, initiating the mandatory signaling period for BIP-110, a contentious proposal aimed at restricting non-financial data on the network. The proposal entered its signaling phase on Saturday evening, supported by miners who contributed no more than 2.5% of their hash power, far from the 55% threshold needed for success.
Notable figures in the Bitcoin community, such as Strategy chairman Michael Saylor and Blockstream CEO Adam Back, have expressed opposition to the proposal. However, its advocates are promoting BIP-110 as a user-activated soft fork (UASF), implying that it would rely on node operators rather than miners to enforce the rule change.
Advocates argue that this approach is reminiscent of the 2017 activation of SegWit through BIP-148, which allowed for the separation of digital signatures from transaction data and received user support despite lacking miner backing. For now, adopting BIP-110 means users will reject the network being built by the majority of miners, potentially leading to a split where two competing Bitcoin networks emerge.
The first would be the dominant mainnet, supported by the majority of hash power and institutional capital, while the second would be a minority chain consisting solely of BIP-110-enforcing nodes. This secondary chain could gain prominence over time as more node operators join, compelling miners to comply, or it might simply fail due to insufficient support.
The signaling window is expected to last until Bitcoin reaches block 965,664, anticipated in approximately four weeks.
Written by urgent.news from CoinDesk's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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