BIP-110 Bitcoin Fork Dead After Two Blocks as Mining Support Hits 2.53%

The breakaway chain is basically dead on arrival. A Bitcoin fork built on BIP-110 has produced exactly two blocks since it launched Saturday, with zero signs of further mining activity picking up anytime soon.

The split happened at block 961,632. That’s when BIP-110 software began rejecting blocks that didn’t signal support for the proposal. By 6 a.m. UTC, the new chain sat at block 961,633. Meanwhile, the main Bitcoin chain had already pushed to block 961,681 — nearly 50 blocks ahead. The gap isn’t closing. It’s growing.

So what is BIP-110, exactly? It’s a Bitcoin Improvement Proposal that wants to stop non-financial data from being stored inside Bitcoin transactions — for one year. Supporters say that kind of data clogs the network and drives up costs for people using Bitcoin as it was intended: to move money. Critics push back hard, arguing that anyone paying a transaction fee has the right to use that space however they want. And miners, they say, shouldn’t get to be the arbiters of which transactions count.

AntPool, Ocean, and a Chain Nobody’s Mining

The first non-signaling block after the fork point was mined by AntPool, and the main Bitcoin network accepted it without drama. Ocean — a separate mining pool — mined an alternative block for the new BIP-110 chain. Both AntPool and Ocean are mining pools, meaning they bundle computing power from multiple participants and split rewards accordingly. But Ocean’s backing hasn’t been enough to keep the new chain moving.

And the numbers make that painfully clear. Over the past two weeks, only 2.53% of blocks signaled support for BIP-110. The threshold needed to activate the proposal without forcing a chain split is 55%. Not even close. The fork happened anyway, backed by a tiny sliver of the mining community, and now it’s sitting nearly motionless.

Two blocks. That’s it.

The Difficulty Adjustment Problem

Here’s where things get technically brutal for the BIP-110 chain. Bitcoin’s protocol adjusts mining difficulty every 2,016 blocks. The adjustment keeps block production running at roughly one block every ten minutes. It’s a self-correcting mechanism that works fine when you have substantial hash power behind you.

More context: BIP-110 Fork Sits 18 Blocks Behind Bitcoins Main Chain After Roughnecks Split

The BIP-110 chain doesn’t. With far fewer mining resources than the main network, it can’t produce blocks anywhere near that pace. But it can’t lower its difficulty until it hits 2,016 blocks either. That’s the rule. And at the current rate of production, reaching 2,016 blocks would take roughly 350 days. Compare that to Bitcoin’s 14 days for the same stretch. That’s not a gap — that’s a chasm.

The BIP-110 nodes were set to require block signaling support through block 963,647. At the pace the chain is moving, it probably won’t get there in time. Not even close.

It’s a mechanical trap. Slow blocks mean slow difficulty adjustment. Slow difficulty adjustment means continued slow blocks. There’s no easy exit from that loop without a sudden surge in mining support — which, given 2.53% backing, seems unlikely.

Replay Risk and the Trader Problem

There’s another wrinkle making the BIP-110 coin hard to trade: both chains accept identical transactions. That creates a replay vulnerability. A transaction broadcast on the fork chain can also be valid on the main Bitcoin network, which opens the door for someone to use fork coins to claim real Bitcoin. It’s a known exploit class in the fork world, and it’s not a small concern.

For anyone thinking about trading the fork coin, that overlap is a serious complication. Sellers can’t easily offload it without risking exposure on the main chain. Buyers face the same tangle. The coin is, for practical purposes, pretty much untradeable in any clean way right now.

More context: BIP-110 Forces a Minority Bitcoin Chain at Block 961,632 With 2.53% Miner Backing

And the security picture isn’t great either. Slow confirmation times on a chain with minimal hash power mean transactions are easier to reverse or double-spend. That’s a fundamental problem for a network trying to attract users.

The fork’s supporters now face a decision with no good options. They can keep running nodes and hope mining support materializes — which hasn’t happened. Or they can walk away from a chain that’s produced two blocks and stalled. The 55% threshold was never met. The difficulty trap is real. And the replay risk makes the coin hard to use even for people who believe in the proposal.

BIP-110 nodes are set to enforce their signaling requirement through block 963,647 — a block the chain may never reach.

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