Contentious Data-Restriction Proposal Enters Four-Week Miner Vote
Bitcoin reached block 961,632 on Saturday, August 7, 2026, at 19:35 UTC, triggering the mandatory signaling period for BIP-110, a soft fork proposal designed to temporarily restrict non-financial data from being embedded on the network. The signaling window will remain open until block 965,664, expected in approximately four weeks.
BIP-110 requires 55% miner support to activate through standard soft fork rules. Current miner backing for the proposal seldom exceeds 2.5%, leaving a substantial gap between existing support and the threshold needed for activation via the traditional consensus path.
Despite the low miner support, BIP-110 proponents are pursuing an alternative activation strategy. Supporters are framing the proposal as a user-activated soft fork, or UASF, which would rely on node operators rather than miners to enforce the rule change. Under this model, users would update their node software to reject blocks from miners that fail to signal BIP-110 support.
The UASF approach draws precedent from SegWit’s activation in 2017. BIP-148 activated without achieving the required miner support threshold, demonstrating that node-enforced consensus can override miner opposition. BIP-110 advocates cite this historical example as evidence that the current proposal remains viable despite minimal mining backing.
The activation attempt carries significant structural risk. If BIP-110 activates via UASF enforcement, Bitcoin could bifurcate into two competing networks: a mainnet backed by majority hash power and institutional capital, and a minority chain of BIP-110-enforcing nodes. Such a split would create operational and security challenges for users and exchanges deciding which chain to follow.
Michael Saylor, chairman of Strategy, and Adam Back, CEO of Blockstream, have both voiced opposition to BIP-110. Their positions reflect broader disagreement within the Bitcoin ecosystem over whether restricting data embedding serves the network’s long-term interests or threatens its utility and decentralization.
The four-week signaling window will provide a definitive measure of miner sentiment. If support remains near 2.5%, the proposal will fail to meet the 55% threshold under standard activation rules, forcing BIP-110 advocates to decide whether to pursue UASF enforcement despite the absence of mining consensus.
