Bitcoin’s BIP-110 Fork Stalls After Mining Just Two Blocks

The splinter chain carried over Bitcoin’s existing mining difficulty despite having only a small fraction of the network’s hashpower. As a result, blocks are being produced hours apart, even though both chains continue to process the same transactions.

A minority chain emerged on Saturday when supporters of BIP-110 split from Bitcoin. Since launching, it has generated only two blocks in roughly eight hours, with no clear indication that miners plan to sustain its progress.

At around 6 a.m. UTC, the new chain stood at block 961,633, while the main Bitcoin network had already advanced to block 961,681, according to the BIP-110 monitoring tool. The split occurred at block 961,632, when nodes running BIP-110 software began rejecting any blocks that did not signal support for the proposal.

Each Bitcoin block represents a bundle of transactions typically added every ten minutes. A difference of 48 blocks therefore reflects nearly a full day’s worth of activity on the main chain, compared to minimal movement on the offshoot.

BIP-110, or Bitcoin Improvement Proposal 110, aims to temporarily prevent users from embedding non-financial data—such as images or text—into Bitcoin transactions for one year. Advocates argue that such usage congests the network and increases costs for users making genuine payments.

Critics, however, maintain that anyone paying transaction fees has the right to use block space as they choose, and that miners or node operators should not determine which transactions are valid.

The first block without a BIP-110 signal was mined by AntPool and accepted by the main network but rejected by BIP-110 nodes. Meanwhile, a miner using Ocean produced an alternative block that the breakaway chain adopted. (Miners are entities that use significant computational power to secure the network and process transactions, earning rewards and fees in return.)

Both AntPool and Ocean function as mining pools, where multiple participants combine resources and share earnings.

The slowdown stems from a structural issue. Bitcoin adjusts its mining difficulty every 2,016 blocks to maintain an average block time of ten minutes.

The new chain inherited this difficulty level but operates with far less computing power, leading to significantly delayed block production. It cannot lower its difficulty until it completes 2,016 blocks, which, at its current pace, could take around 350 days—compared to about 14 days on the main Bitcoin network.

Support for BIP-110 was limited from the outset. Over the past two weeks, only 2.53% of blocks signaled support, far below the 55% threshold required to activate the proposal without causing a split.

This creates complications for anyone attempting to trade the forked coin. Since both chains still recognize identical transactions, a signed transfer on the fork can also be broadcast on the Bitcoin network, potentially allowing a buyer to claim actual BTC from the same transaction—raising the risk of a new type of attack that users should be aware of.

At the same time, the fork’s slow block production means transactions take much longer to confirm, further reducing its practicality for trading.

BIP-110 nodes will continue to require all blocks to signal support until block 963,647. However, given the current pace, the breakaway chain is unlikely to reach that point within the two-week window.

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