Bitcoin Blockchain Splits as Main Chain Pulls Ahead of Minority Fork
A minority fork of Bitcoin's blockchain has emerged following a disagreement over the enforcement of a proposed software upgrade, BIP-110. The split occurred after nodes enforcing BIP-110 rejected a block at height 961,632 due to its failure to signal support for the proposal. This rejection resulted in the creation of two separate branches, with the main chain now significantly ahead of the minority branch.
The majority of miners had previously signaled limited support for BIP-110, with only 51 out of 2,016 blocks signaling backing during the previous period, equating to just 2.53% miner participation. This lack of support meant that the proposal's mandatory-signaling requirement took effect at block 961,632.
Under BIP-110's rules, enforcing nodes would reject any blocks failing to set version bit 4 until block 963,647. However, this does not yet involve transactions violating the proposal's temporary data restrictions, which are scheduled to take effect at block 965,664 and remain active for 52,416 blocks.
Developers have cautioned that the minority fork lacks automatic replay protection before its later activation stage, creating additional risks when coins are moved. This means that a transaction made on one branch could potentially affect the same coins on the other branch.