The newly established chain, which has a minimal share of hashpower, inherits Bitcoin's mining difficulty, resulting in lengthy intervals between mined blocks while both chains process the same transactions.
By Shaurya Malwa|Edited by Nikhilesh DeUpdated 35 min agoPublished 51 min ago2 min readMake preferred on ShareShare this articleCopy linkX (Twitter)LinkedInFacebookEmailMake preferred on BIP-110 Bitcoin Fork Halts After Mining Two Blocks. (Shutterstock)SummaryShow- A minority chain initiated by proponents of the BIP-110 proposal has stalled after generating only two blocks in about eight hours, while the main Bitcoin chain has added 48 blocks in the same timeframe.
- The BIP-110 proposal aims to prohibit the inclusion of non-financial data like images and text in Bitcoin transactions for a year, a measure supporters claim will alleviate congestion and costs, whereas critics argue it infringes on users' rights to utilize paid block space freely.
- With a mere 2.53 percent of recent mining support, the forked chain suffers from extremely slow block production, lacks a feasible route to meet its signaling deadline, and places users at risk of replay attacks if they attempt to transact with forked coins while using their main-chain Bitcoin.
The minority chain resulting from a split among BIP-110 advocates has managed to mine just two blocks approximately eight hours post-launch, with no indication that any miner is willing to continue its operation.
Currently, it stands at block 961,633, while the principal Bitcoin chain has progressed to block 961,681, as reported by the BIP-110 situation monitor. The fork took place at block 961,632, when systems running BIP-110 software began to reject any block that did not indicate support for the proposal.
Typically, a new block is added to Bitcoin's ledger every ten minutes, so the difference of 48 blocks illustrates a significant disparity in activity between the two chains.
BIP-110, or Bitcoin Improvement Proposal-110, seeks to temporarily halt the storage of non-financial content within Bitcoin transactions for a year. Proponents argue that this would prevent the network from becoming congested with irrelevant data, thus lowering costs for actual monetary transactions.
Conversely, opponents contend that users who pay transaction fees should have the freedom to use the space as they please, asserting that miners and node operators shouldn't dictate which transactions are deemed valid.
AntPool mined the first block that did not signal support for BIP-110, which was accepted by the broader network but rejected by the BIP-110 nodes. Following that, a miner using Ocean produced the block that the breakaway chain followed. (Miners are entities utilizing substantial computing resources to maintain the Bitcoin network and process transactions, earning rewards in the form of newly issued Bitcoin and transaction fees.)
Both AntPool and Ocean are mining pools, where numerous operators collaborate their hardware and share the resulting rewards.
The current stagnation has a fundamental cause that is difficult to overcome. Bitcoin adjusts its mining difficulty every 2,016 blocks to maintain a consistent block interval of approximately ten minutes.
This new chain has adopted Bitcoin's existing difficulty settings but operates with a minuscule share of hashpower, resulting in infrequent block production. It cannot adjust its mining difficulty until it has completed 2,016 blocks at its current pace, which the monitor estimates will take about 350 days, compared to just 14 days for Bitcoin.
BIP-110 Situation Monitor. (Bip110.orange.surf)Support for the proposal has been minimal. Just 2.53% of blocks have indicated support for BIP-110 in the last two weeks, falling short of the 55% required for activation without a split.
This situation leaves the forked coin in a precarious position for those looking to sell it. Since both chains process the same transactions, a transaction that is signed on the fork also functions on the main chain, enabling a buyer to rebroadcast it and receive genuine BTC from the same seller — creating potential for a new attack strategy that users need to be aware of.
However, a chain that produces a block every few hours is also slow to confirm transactions, complicating trades rather than facilitating them.
The two-week timeframe in which BIP-110 nodes require every block to signal support extends to block 963,647. Given the recent pace, the chain is unlikely to come close to that target.
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