Bitcoin Fork's Six-Year Wait: BIP-110 Struggles to Catch Up

The Bitcoin network has a built-in mechanism to adjust its difficulty level every 2,016 blocks, which is roughly two weeks. However, the BIP-110 fork, which is currently 300 blocks behind the main chain (BTC), cannot adjust its difficulty without first completing this block threshold. As a result, it will take around six years for the fork to reach the required number of blocks and potentially become viable again.

The BIP-110 fork was created when miners diverged from the main chain due to a difference in mining costs. Since both chains inherited the same difficulty level at the time of divergence, they are now experiencing similar mining costs. However, as there is no market or exchange listing for the BIP-110 coin, it cannot be mined profitably.

The live monitor estimates that the adjustment of the fork's difficulty level will not happen until 6.3 years from now, which is a significant increase from the initial estimate of 350 days. This means that every idle hour pushes the adjustment further out, making it even more challenging for the BIP-110 fork to catch up with the main chain.