Bitcoin on Brink of Split as BIP-110 Deadline Looms

A contentious proposal to alter Bitcoin's block size limit is nearing its deadline for mandatory signaling. BIP-110, a temporary rule change that caps transaction data at a smaller amount than current blocks can hold, has been put forth by developer Dathon Ohm. Ohm claims it fixes critical vulnerabilities, but others argue the problem doesn't exist and the proposal's backers should stand down.

Ohm told users to abandon Bitcoin Core, warning that nodes running on it would become insecure once mandatory signaling begins. He suggests installing Bitcoin Knots instead, a smaller rival to Bitcoin Core. However, Michael Saylor, MicroStrategy executive, sees no issue with the current state and thinks BIP-110's backers should stand down.

The block height for mandatory signaling is set at 290 blocks, or roughly two days from now. Miners must signal their readiness by setting versionbit 4 in each block header. Blocks without this flag will be rejected by BIP-110 nodes. At present, only a small fraction of miners have signaled their support.