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The enforcing branch is basically dead in the water. BIP-110’s mandatory signaling kicked in at block 961,632 on Saturday, and since then the fork has managed to produce exactly two blocks — then stopped cold.
As of Sunday, the BIP-110-enforcing chain sits at block 961,633. The non-enforcing chain, meanwhile, has raced ahead to block 961,721. That’s an 88-block gap, and it’s growing. A BIP-110 monitor updated at 10:19 am UTC showed the last block on the enforcing branch was mined roughly 12 hours before that reading. Two blocks in, and then silence.
Mining Support Is Almost Nonexistent
The numbers are pretty brutal. Out of the previous 2,016 blocks, only 51 have signaled in favor of BIP-110 — that’s 2.53%. Not nearly enough to keep a fork alive, let alone push it forward through a full difficulty adjustment period.
The only miner actually working on the enforcing branch is a pseudonymous group called Roughnecks. They used Ocean’s Decentralized Alternative Templates for Universal Mining protocol — known as DATUM — to generate those two lone blocks. No other mining group has stepped in. So right now, Roughnecks is basically carrying this thing alone, and it’s not moving.
The BIP-110 proposal keeps mandatory signaling active through block 963,647. That’s a long runway still ahead. But without a serious jump in hashpower, the enforcing branch can’t get anywhere fast. It needs to grind through the current 2,016-block adjustment period before any difficulty reset can happen. And with almost no miners behind it, that grind could take a very long time — or just never finish.
Saylor and Back Both Have Problems With It
It’s not just miners staying away. Some of Bitcoin’s loudest voices have gone on record against BIP-110, though not always for the same reasons.
Michael Saylor, strategy executive chairman, says he’s aligned with what BIP-110 is trying to accomplish — but he thinks the approach is wrong. His concern is that the proposal risks Bitcoin’s foundational neutrality and its consensus model. Basically, he’s on board with the destination, not the road being taken.
Adam Back, CEO of Blockstream, went further. Back said the consensus changes in BIP-110 could damage Bitcoin’s credibility outright. Worse, he warned that some unspent transaction outputs could become unspendable under the proposal. That’s a serious technical concern — UTXOs are the backbone of how Bitcoin tracks ownership, and breaking them is not a small thing.
So you’ve got two high-profile figures, both skeptical, for different but overlapping reasons. That kind of opposition from within the community probably doesn’t help recruiting miners to the enforcing side.
Why the Gap Keeps Widening
The mechanics here matter. BIP-110 nodes are built to reject any block that doesn’t signal using version bit 4. Ordinary Bitcoin nodes don’t have that requirement — they’ll accept blocks whether they signal or not. So the non-enforcing chain just keeps producing blocks normally, no friction, while the enforcing branch waits on miners who aren’t showing up.
That’s the core problem. The enforcing branch faces full mining difficulty with almost no hashpower behind it. It can’t reduce that difficulty until it completes the 2,016-block adjustment period. And it can’t complete that period without miners. It’s a loop with no obvious exit right now.
The gap between the two chains started the moment mandatory signaling began at block 961,632. It’s been widening ever since. Every block the non-enforcing chain adds makes the enforcing branch look more isolated.
Miners are essentially being asked to make a resource decision — point computing power at a chain that’s going nowhere, or keep working on the chain that’s already at block 961,721 and climbing. Most have chosen the obvious answer.
Whether more miners eventually shift to the enforcing side before block 963,647 is unclear. No major mining pool has announced support. Roughnecks remains the only group on record as actively mining the enforcing branch, and their output so far is two blocks.
The mandatory signaling window is still open. But 2.53% support across 2,016 blocks is a long way from the kind of consensus a fork needs to actually move.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is BIP-110 and what does it require?
BIP-110 is a Bitcoin Improvement Proposal that requires miners to signal support using version bit 4 during a mandatory period running from block 961,632 through block 963,647.
Who mined the only two blocks on the BIP-110 enforcing chain?
A pseudonymous mining group called Roughnecks mined both blocks using Ocean’s DATUM protocol; no other mining group has contributed to the enforcing branch.
What did Adam Back say about BIP-110?
Blockstream CEO Adam Back warned that BIP-110’s consensus changes could harm Bitcoin’s credibility and potentially render some unspent transaction outputs unspendable.
