The BIP-110 fork of Bitcoin is 326 blocks behind the main network, with no adjustments expected for six years following its split.
The BIP-110 fork of Bitcoin is facing significant challenges, currently lagging 326 blocks behind the main network, with no adjustments expected for at least six years.
Since its launch on Saturday, the new chain has produced only two blocks, while Bitcoin itself has added over 300 blocks in the same timeframe.
The BIP-110 proposal aimed to modify Bitcoin's protocol by preventing the storage of non-payment data for a year, but its implementation has not gained the necessary miner support. To succeed, it required 55% backing over two weeks but only reached a peak of 2.6%.
On Saturday, the BIP-110 chain split from Bitcoin, ceasing progress after reaching block 961,633. In contrast, Bitcoin has advanced to block 961,959, emphasizing the growing gap. The fork's high mining difficulty, which mirrors that of Bitcoin, has deterred miners due to the lack of market value for the new chain, causing it to stall.
To reduce its mining difficulty, the BIP-110 chain must first complete 2,016 blocks, a milestone now estimated to take over six years to reach. This estimate has increased from an earlier prediction of 350 days due to the current slow block production rate.
The split was triggered when BIP-110 began rejecting blocks that did not meet its compliance standards, effectively leading to a chain that only included accepted blocks. Mining on this fork incurs similar costs to Bitcoin, but without any market value or trading opportunities.
Despite the current situation, some industry observers, including Himanshu Sahay, co-founder of Arch, caution against declaring the fork a failure too soon. He emphasized that modifications to Bitcoin’s rules require broad consensus among miners and developers, and the current status may not be the final outcome.
