BIP-110 Bitcoin Fork Stalls at Block 961,633 as Gap Widens to 88 Blocks

Bitcoin’s BIP-110-enforcing chain has ground to a near-halt after producing just two blocks since splitting off on Saturday, while the unmodified network kept advancing at its normal pace. As of Sunday, the enforcing branch sat stuck at block 961,633, according to the BIP-110 situation monitor, with its last block mined roughly 12 hours earlier. The main chain, by contrast, had reached block 961,721 — a gap of 88 blocks, or nearly a full day’s worth of network activity.

2.53% support and a stuck difficulty

The split traces back to block 961,632, when mandatory signaling for BIP-110 began. Of the preceding 2,016 blocks, only 51 — just 2.53% — had signaled support for the proposal via version bit 4. That thin base of miner backing is now the fork’s central problem: nodes running BIP-110 software reject any block that doesn’t signal support, while ordinary Bitcoin nodes accept both signaling and non-signaling blocks, effectively splitting the network into a large majority chain and a tiny minority one.

Because the enforcing branch inherited Bitcoin’s full mining difficulty at the moment of the fork, it must grind through the remainder of a 2,016-block adjustment window before its difficulty can reset lower. With so little hashpower pointed at it, that means blocks arriving hours apart instead of the usual roughly ten minutes — and no clear path to catching up before mandatory signaling is set to run through block 963,647.

Ocean’s mining data shows a pseudonymous group calling itself Roughnecks mined the branch’s first two blocks using the pool’s Decentralized Alternative Templates for Universal Mining (DATUM) protocol. No other miner has shown signs of consistently working the enforcing chain since.

What BIP-110 tries to do — and why it’s contested

BIP-110 would temporarily bar storing non-financial data — images, text and similar content — inside Bitcoin transactions for one year. Backers argue the rule would ease network congestion and lower transaction costs for users simply sending payments. Opponents counter that anyone who pays the fee has bought the right to use that block space however they choose, and that miners or node operators shouldn’t be gatekeeping which transactions qualify.

The proposal has drawn pushback from established Bitcoin figures. Strategy executive chairman Michael Saylor said he agrees with BIP-110’s underlying goals but warned that its enforcement mechanism threatens Bitcoin’s neutral consensus rules. Blockstream CEO Adam Back went further, cautioning that the consensus-level change could damage Bitcoin’s credibility and even render certain unspent transaction outputs unspendable.

Why it matters for holders

Because both chains currently accept the same transactions, anyone attempting to sell coins on the minority fork while also spending Bitcoin on the main chain faces replay-style risk — a transaction broadcast on one chain could be valid on the other too. With BTC trading near $64,956 and the enforcing branch showing no realistic route to gathering enough hashpower before its signaling deadline, the practical takeaway for traders is that Bitcoin’s actual chain of record remains the unmodified, majority-hashpower network. The BIP-110 branch, for now, looks less like a functioning fork and more like a stalled experiment.

Sources

• cointelegraph.com
• coindesk.com