BIP-110 Fork Stalls After Mining Only Two Blocks

BIP-110 Fork Stalls After Mining Only Two Blocks

A controversial fork of Bitcoin known as BIP-110 has effectively stalled, producing only two blocks in approximately eight hours. In contrast, the main Bitcoin chain has progressed by 48 blocks during the same timeframe, highlighting significant disparities in mining activity.

Breakaway Chain’s Current Status

The new minority chain created by BIP-110 supporters managed to reach block 961,633, while the main Bitcoin blockchain achieved block 961,681. The split occurred at block 961,632 when nodes running BIP-110 software began rejecting blocks that did not signal support for the proposal.

Objectives of BIP-110

BIP-110 aims to prevent users from embedding non-financial data, such as images and text, within Bitcoin transactions for a year. Proponents argue this would reduce network congestion caused by unrelated data, potentially lowering transaction costs for essential financial transfers. However, critics assert that users paying transaction fees should have the freedom to utilize the blockchain space as they see fit, and that such decisions should not be dictated by miners.

Challenges Facing the Minority Chain

The mining pool AntPool was responsible for mining the first non-signaling block, which was accepted by the broader network but rejected by BIP-110 nodes. Meanwhile, a miner affiliated with Ocean produced the block that the minority chain followed. The breakaway chain currently inherits Bitcoin’s difficulty setting but operates with a much smaller share of the overall computing power, causing its blocks to emerge at lengthy intervals.

Future Outlook

Due to this structural issue, the minority chain is unlikely to see any improvements in mining difficulty until it successfully completes 2,016 blocks at its current production rate, which is projected to take approximately 350 days. In contrast, the main Bitcoin chain is expected to achieve this in only 14 days.

Support for BIP-110 has been notably weak, with only 2.53% of blocks signaling support for the proposal over the past two weeks, significantly less than the 55% required to implement it without a split. This lack of backing puts the forked coin in a precarious position for potential transactions, as both chains still accept identical transactions. This means users can transact with forked coins on the original Bitcoin blockchain, where they can access real BTC.

The two-week time frame for BIP-110 nodes demanding each block signal support extends through block 963,647. At the current rate, the chain is unlikely to approach this threshold.