Bitcoin’s controversial BIP-110 fork has fallen more than 300 blocks behind the main Bitcoin blockchain after producing only two blocks since splitting from the network on Saturday.
The minority chain remained stalled at block 961,633 while Bitcoin’s dominant chain advanced to block 961,959, creating a gap of 326 blocks. More importantly, the breakaway network appears trapped by the same mining difficulty mechanism designed to keep Bitcoin’s block production stable.
Without a substantial increase in mining support, current estimates suggest that the BIP-110 chain could take more than six years to reach its first difficulty adjustment.
Why Did BIP-110 Split From Bitcoin?
BIP-110, also known as the Reduced Data Temporary Softfork, proposed restricting the storage of images, text and other non-payment data in Bitcoin transactions for approximately one year.
Supporters argued that limiting arbitrary data would help preserve Bitcoin as a monetary settlement network and reduce blockchain congestion caused by inscriptions and similar applications. Critics warned that restricting otherwise valid transactions could undermine Bitcoin’s neutrality and establish a precedent for censoring how block space is used.
The proposal required 55% of blocks within a two-week signaling period to demonstrate miner support. However, support peaked at only around 2.6%, well below the required threshold.
Despite failing to secure the voluntary threshold, BIP-110 included a mandatory enforcement route. Beginning at block 961,632, nodes running the proposal’s rules started rejecting blocks that did not include the required signaling bit.
Because most miners continued producing non-signaling blocks, BIP-110 nodes rejected the chain supported by nearly all of Bitcoin’s computing power and began following a much smaller signaling-only branch. The outcome reflects earlier evidence that a Bitcoin miner rejected BIP-110 despite using OCEAN, a mining pool closely associated with the proposal.
Breakaway Chain Produces Just Two Blocks
Miners supporting BIP-110 successfully produced blocks 961,632 and 961,633. However, no additional blocks had been mined at the time of reporting.
Bitcoin normally produces one block roughly every 10 minutes. This schedule is maintained through a difficulty adjustment that occurs every 2,016 blocks. If blocks are produced too quickly, mining becomes more difficult. If production slows, the difficulty decreases.
The problem for BIP-110 is that the minority fork inherited Bitcoin’s mining difficulty when the chains separated. Mining a block on the fork therefore requires approximately the same computational effort as mining on Bitcoin’s main network.
However, the forked asset has no established market price, exchange listing or significant liquidity. Miners consequently have little financial incentive to redirect computing power from Bitcoin toward the BIP-110 chain.
That economic imbalance is especially significant given reports that Bitcoin’s rising hashrate makes majority attacks increasingly expensive. The same enormous computing power protecting Bitcoin also makes it extremely difficult for a small competing branch to maintain comparable block production.
Difficulty Adjustment Could Be Years Away
Under normal conditions, Bitcoin completes 2,016 blocks in approximately two weeks. The BIP-110 chain must also reach that milestone before it can recalculate its mining difficulty and reduce the computational work required to produce new blocks.
A live BIP-110 monitor estimated that the next adjustment could be approximately 6.3 years away at the fork’s current pace. That estimate had reportedly increased from around 350 days only two days earlier.
The projection is not fixed. Additional miners could join the network and accelerate block production, while further inactivity would push the expected adjustment even further into the future.
Some observers have described the stalled fork as evidence that contentious changes cannot succeed without broad support from miners and the wider Bitcoin economy. Others argue that it is still too early to declare the experiment over because mining power could theoretically return.
A Test of Bitcoin’s Decentralized Governance
The BIP-110 split demonstrates that Bitcoin’s governance is shaped by several groups rather than developers alone. Node operators can adopt new rules, but miners decide which valid chain receives computing power, while exchanges, custodians and users determine whether the resulting asset has economic value.
Technical proposals also require extensive review. That challenge became clearer after Bitcoin developers identified 85 critical bugs across hundreds of projects, reinforcing the importance of testing and coordination before enforcing major changes.
The wider ecosystem is simultaneously preparing for longer-term threats, including work by the Bitcoin Security Consortium on quantum-resistant defenses.
For now, Bitcoin’s main chain continues operating normally, while the BIP-110 branch remains technically alive but economically isolated. Its future depends on whether supporters can attract enough mining power to restart block production and eventually reach the adjustment needed to lower its difficulty.