BIP110 soft fork faces August 8 deadline with 2.4% miner support

Bitcoin's BIP110 soft fork enters mandatory signaling August 8 with 2.42% miner support, far below the 55% early lock-in threshold tracked by the BIP110 monitoring dashboard.

"BIP-110 is trying to solve a problem Bitcoin's block space has been used for image files, tokens, and inscriptions that have nothing to do with sending or storing money," Andrej Majcen, CEO at Bitcoin Suisse, said. "Anyone determined to put unwanted content on the chain will find another encoding path once this one closes."

The proposal, implemented in Bitcoin Knots, temporarily limits OP_RETURN sizes and targets Ordinals, BRC-20 tokens, and other non-monetary data. Bitcoin Core — still the dominant implementation — has not adopted BIP110, and only 1-2% of hash power has indicated support in recent weeks, per bitnod.es. The mandatory window begins at block 961,632, expected on or around August 8.

If BIP110 fails to gain miner support, Bitcoin Knots nodes will reject non-signaling blocks, potentially stalling the minority client. If a sizable minority of miners enforce the rules, the chain could split permanently, creating a forkcoin without replay protection. If nearly all miners signal, the upgrade activates network-wide by early September.

Three scenarios, three outcomes

Scenario 1: Almost no miners signal. Bitcoin Core nodes operate normally; BIP110-enforcing nodes stall and become unusable. Proponents would need to decide between waiting, giving up, or hard forking to a different proof-of-work algorithm. Such a hard fork could allow GPU mining again, but it would also permanently split off from the rest of the Bitcoin ecosystem.

Scenario 2: Almost all miners signal. All nodes remain compatible, and BIP110 rules go into effect by early September. However, miners can signal without enforcing, and economic nodes haven't committed to enforcing the rules either. If BIP110-violating transactions are later accepted by most miners, the blockchain would split between nodes that do and do not enforce the rules.

Scenario 3: A sizable minority signals and enforces. The chain splits into two cryptocurrencies. The minority BIP110 chain would confirm blocks slower initially — maybe one or two per hour — then adjust difficulty after a few months. Users could manually invalidate the minority chain to make the split permanent, preventing a later wipe-out.

Governance stakes extend beyond block space

Michael Saylor, executive chairman at Strategy, argued that Bitcoin protocol changes require broad economic support rather than technical backing alone. "Bitcoin's direction is ultimately determined by what exchanges, miners, custodians, investors, and businesses collectively adopt," he said.

Developer Chris Guida has reworked 2017 proof-of-work change code for Bitcoin Knots as a contingency if major mining pools refuse to support BIP110. Luke Dashjr expressed hope the measure would never be needed but emphasized preparation.

Ordinals advocate Leonidas called BIP110 "an attempt to attack Ordinals and Runes" and predicted it would "fail to gain consensus and result in a minority fork."

If the chain splits, everyone holding BTC at the time receives equivalent coins on the new chain, but without replay protection, transactions could be copied across chains. Fork future contracts suggest minimal market interest in BIP110 coins. Self-custody and transaction pauses are advised until clarity emerges.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.