Schwartz Slams BIP-110 Supporters for 'Attacking' Bitcoin Network

Ripple's CTO Emeritus David Schwartz weighed in on the recent Bitcoin BIP-110 fork, calling out supporters who continued to mine on a new chain despite losing a consensus vote.

Schwartz argued that by rejecting the soft-fork result and creating a separate proof-of-work chain, these supporters crossed from governance into an attack on the network.

The dispute centers around the implementation of BLAKE2b as a mining algorithm, which was introduced through a flag-day hard fork at block 961,640. This update replaced SHA256d and also included new rules capping block size at roughly 300 kilobytes until September 2027.

Luke Dashjr, developer of Bitcoin Knots, defended the switch to BLAKE2b, stating that it carries none of SHA256d's known weaknesses, such as ASICBoost. He also noted that the redesigned header closes a block-withholding loophole that previously relied on miner monitoring to catch.