BIP-110 Stalls at 2.53% Support After Two Blocks

Woofun AI reports that the Bitcoin BIP-110 soft fork stalled after just two blocks, a failure first highlighted by Decrypt. The incident underscores the difficulty of implementing protocol changes without broad miner consensus, as the forked chain remained stranded dozens of blocks behind the mainnet.

The technical collapse occurred rapidly over the weekend, with the chain split initiating at block height 961,632. After roughly eight hours, only two blocks had been mined under the new rules, leaving the forked chain lagging significantly.

Woofun AI data shows miner support for the forked chain stood at just 2.53%, far below the 55% activation threshold required for the proposal to take effect.

BIP-110 was designed as a temporary soft fork to limit non-payment data embedded in Bitcoin transactions. Its primary goal was to reduce the prevalence of inscriptions and Runes, which have grown in popularity for storing arbitrary data. By restricting these elements, the proposal sought to ease the processing burden on full nodes that must validate every transaction.

Significant opposition emerged from within the Bitcoin community, with many viewing the proposal as an attempt at censorship. Critics argued that limiting data would restrict how users utilize the blockchain beyond simple value transfer. This sentiment was reflected in the low miner support, as the majority of mining pools declined to signal readiness for the fork.

The stall highlights the decentralized nature of Bitcoin governance, where changes require consensus among miners, node operators, and users. While inscriptions and Runes have generated fee revenue, they also raise concerns about centralization pressures due to increased data loads. From a market perspective, the failed fork had minimal impact on Bitcoin's price, indicating that traders view such governance skirmishes as routine rather than catastrophic events.

BIP-110's failure suggests that the community currently prioritizes open access over efficiency gains. While the proposal may be revived in a different form, its current rejection reflects a cautious approach to altering the network's fundamental properties. Debates over data limits and transaction flexibility will likely continue, shaping Bitcoin's trajectory in the years ahead.