BIP-110 Bitcoin Fork Stalls Amid Mining Difficulty Struggles

The BIP-110 Bitcoin fork has stalled after producing only two blocks in its first eight hours, while the main chain of Bitcoin advanced by 48 blocks during the same period.

The minority branch inherited Bitcoin's mining difficulty despite attracting a small fraction of the network's total hashpower, which could take roughly 350 days to reach its next adjustment at the observed pace. This is compared to about 14 days under normal conditions.

The BIP-110 fork proposes restricting non-financial information inside Bitcoin transactions for about one year, but its reduced-data rules have not yet activated. The proposal requires miners to signal support through a series of blocks, but only 51 blocks backed the fork during the previous 2,016-block period, equal to 2.53%.

The BIP-110 Bitcoin fork creates transaction replay concerns due to identical transaction rules with the main chain. A buyer could rebroadcast a transaction spending fork coins and potentially move the seller's BTC on the main network without automatic replay protection distinguishing one branch from the other.