BIP-110 Bitcoin Fork Falters After Just Two Blocks Mined

A proposed Bitcoin fork called BIP-110 has stalled after just two blocks were mined by an anonymous collective known as Roughnecks. The fork, which aimed to restrict non-financial data storage within Bitcoin blocks, remains stuck at block 961,633, while the main chain has progressed to block 961,744, creating a 111-block difference.

According to Michael Saylor, executive chairman of Strategy, approximately 99.85% of Bitcoin's computational power continued supporting the main chain, with the fork requiring around 25 years to complete its first difficulty adjustment if it maintains only 0.15% of the network's hash rate.

The BIP-110 proposal attracted minimal backing before enforcement commenced, with only 51 out of 2,016 blocks signaling support, representing a mere 2.53%. The implementation of the fork has been met with caution from some developers, who warn that it could undermine Bitcoin's reliability and potentially render certain transaction outputs unusable.

One of the practical challenges facing individuals holding Bitcoin from before the split occurred is the lack of integrated replay protection mechanisms in BIP-110. This means that transferring coins on the minority fork without first isolating balances could inadvertently expose identical coins on the primary chain.