BIP-110 chain split stalls without mining support
A breakaway Bitcoin chain created by BIP-110 software has produced only two blocks since splitting from the main network Saturday at block 961,632, leaving it 326 blocks behind and facing a 6.3-year wait to recalibrate its mining difficulty.
BIP-110 proposes blocking storage of non-payment data, such as pictures and text, in Bitcoin transactions for one year. The proposal requires miner agreement signaled through block marking. When the fork activated, it inherited Bitcoin’s mining difficulty at the split point. That difficulty cannot recalculate until the forked chain produces 2,016 blocks, a threshold it will not reach for approximately 6.3 years at its current production rate of roughly two blocks since the split.
The main Bitcoin chain has continued normally, reaching block 961,959. Bitcoin’s next difficulty adjustment is due in 12 days. The forked coin has no market value, exchange listing, or known buyers.
Himanshu Sahay, co-founder of cryptocurrency firm Arch, cautioned against premature judgment of the fork’s viability. “I think it is still too early to draw any firm conclusions from the initial block production,” Sahay said. “I would be cautious about describing it as a failure at this stage.”
BIP-110 required 55% miner agreement to activate. The proposal peaked at 2.6% support, according to reporting by CoinDesk’s Shaurya Malwa. The fork’s inability to attract sustained mining activity means its difficulty adjustment mechanism, which recalculates every 2,016 blocks at normal speed, remains locked at the inherited level.
Without miners directing computing power toward the forked chain, block production has stalled far short of the threshold needed for any difficulty change. The fork’s survival depends entirely on miners choosing to continue validation, a choice they have effectively declined to make since Saturday’s split.
