Bitcoin's Immaculate Conception Eludes Modern Fork Attempts
A recent Bitcoin fork attempt, BIP-110, has highlighted the challenges of recreating the conditions under which Bitcoin was first launched. According to Giacomo Zucco of Plan B Network, the failed fork shows just how difficult it would be to replicate Bitcoin's original launch today.
The BIP-110 fork saw nodes split from the main Bitcoin network over the weekend, but struggled to sustain itself, producing only a handful of blocks. Despite efforts by Luke Dashjr, who was involved in the proposal and had initially planned to use a Testnet4 block hash to choose among several algorithms, participants disrupted the selection process by generating extra testnet blocks, forcing a restart.
Zucco emphasized that modern incentives and deliberate disruption make it difficult to reproduce Bitcoin's early conditions. He noted that the fork combined legitimate disputes over spam, Bitcoin Core governance, and the roles of nodes and miners with a 'moral panic' over claims that illegal on-chain material could create legal risks for node operators.
Zucco also expressed concerns about the removal of Dashjr as a BIP editor following a vote by other Bitcoin developers. He argued that this move could reinforce claims among fork supporters that Bitcoin development had become centralized.