The countdown to the controversial activation of BIP-110, a proposed Bitcoin soft fork aiming to block NFT-style Ordinals inscriptions for one year, has entered its crucial phase. With only three weeks left before the deadline at block 961,632, node operators backing BIP-110 are preparing to enforce new rules by rejecting blocks that do not signal support for the upgrade.
Rising tensions over Bitcoin’s future direction
Supporters of BIP-110 have promoted the proposal as a decisive measure to maintain the purity of Bitcoin. Some activists have attempted to cast the choice to back the upgrade as a way to determine who qualifies as a “real Bitcoiner,” intensifying debates within the community.
Blockstream CEO Adam Back has emerged as a vocal critic, pushing back against the proposal and the rhetoric around it. Back stated plainly, “They don’t know Bitcoin,” referencing those advocating for the upgrade as lacking understanding of the network’s core principles.
Back identified a misunderstanding among proponents, arguing that good intentions are undermined by an inability to distinguish between genuine network consensus and social media-driven ultimatums.
This conflict has split influential Bitcoin figures and developers into two camps. Supporters of BIP-110 believe that restricting transactions identified as spam is essential to safeguarding network decentralization and resource efficiency.
Opponents, including Adam Back and MicroStrategy founder Michael Saylor, take a markedly different view. Saylor, who recently issued a public manifesto against BIP-110, joined Back in arguing that Bitcoin’s permissionless design must not be compromised by filtering particular transaction types. They assert that transaction fees should be market-driven, not dictated by protocol changes targeting specific activity.
Critics warn that filtering data on the blockchain would amount to subjective censorship, violating the neutrality that is foundational to Bitcoin’s ethos.
Lack of miner and market support hinders BIP-110
Despite prominent voices and heated debate across social platforms, blockchain data reveals minimal adoption among miners. Actual participation in signaling for BIP-110 by major mining pools has stalled at just 0.86%.
Under the rules set for this upgrade, a minimum of 55% hash rate support is required to officially lock in BIP-110. With the current level of engagement, achieving this threshold is now mathematically unfeasible.
| Metric | Value | Threshold for Activation |
|---|---|---|
| Mining pool signaling rate | 0.86% | 55% |
| Time remaining | 3 weeks | N/A |
No significant financial products have been launched to support or speculate on the fork, and there is no visible liquidity or organized funding for the project. Adam Back commented on the lack of monetary backing, suggesting organizers failed even to arrange sponsorship for a post-upgrade celebration.
When the signaling code becomes mandatory in three weeks, compliant nodes will start rejecting blocks from miners not supporting the soft fork. This scenario risks a split in the Bitcoin blockchain, known as a chain split.
However, given the absence of support from the majority of the network’s computational power, the resulting offshoot is expected to lack sustainability. Back predicted that this minority chain would quickly become obsolete, failing to gain traction or long-term viability.
Mini dictionary: BIP-110 is a proposed Bitcoin Improvement Proposal aiming to filter out specific transaction types, such as Ordinals inscriptions, for a limited period by requiring node enforcement. Ordinals are a method for embedding arbitrary data, including NFT-like assets, directly onto the Bitcoin blockchain.
