Bitcoin Chain Split Resulting in Two Competing Chains
The Bitcoin network experienced a chain split on Saturday, resulting in two competing chains. The divergence occurred at block height 961,632 due to nodes enforcing BIP-110 rules rejecting a non-signaling block. This led to the creation of a minority chain, which managed to produce two blocks before stalling. In contrast, the dominant chain continued its normal pace, reaching block height 961,651 by Saturday evening.
The BIP-110 proposal aimed to introduce a one-year cap on transaction data fields for Ordinals inscriptions and Runes tokens. However, miner support never exceeded 3%, falling short of the required 55% threshold set by its authors. The proposal's authors had asked miners to signal their support through version bit 4, but even AntPool, which won the race for block height 961,632, failed to do so.
Developer Jameson Lopp confirmed the chain split in a post on Saturday, pointing readers towards a live dashboard tracking both chain tips. The minority chain's hashrate was significantly lower than that of the dominant chain, with mining difficulty reaching 127.48 trillion at block height 961,632. As a result, blocks on the minority chain took longer to solve, sometimes stretching from ten minutes into hours or even days.
The BIP-110 camp's views were split, with some arguing that the proposal would fork into irrelevance if it didn't gain broader support. In contrast, others, such as Ocean's chief technology officer Luke Dashjr, urged node operators to upgrade their software immediately, warning them of potential exposure to double-spending attacks.