Bitcoin’s BIP 110 fork deadline nears with miner support at zero

Tech Bitcoin’s BIP 110 fork deadline nears with miner support at zero The BIP 110 proposal would cap arbitrary data on Bitcoin for a year, but Saylor, Adam Back and others say turning a spam dispute into a consensus fight could create a bigger risk than the spam itself. By Shaurya Malwa Jul 12, 2026, 5:49 a.m. 3 min read Make preferred on Share Share this article Copy link X icon X (Twitter) LinkedIn Facebook Email Make preferred on Summary Show A controversial proposal known as BIP-110, which would temporarily restrict non-financial data on the Bitcoin blockchain, faces an early August deadline with miner support still below 1%. The measure would tighten limits on OP_RETURN and other data-carrying methods for one year, a move backers say would refocus Bitcoin on payments but critics argue improperly censors valid, fee-paying transactions. With major figures like Michael Saylor and Adam Back opposing the plan and both miner and node adoption stuck in the low single digits, BIP-110 appears likely to create only a small minority chain rather than a network-wide change. An infamous proposal to purge non-financial data from the Bitcoin blockchain is heading toward a hard deadline in early August, and the initial support it has gathered from miners is less than 1% so far - a signal of outsized opposition despite the immense social chatter around the topic. BIP-110 , formally titled the Reduced Data Temporary Soft Fork, is basically a fight over what Bitcoin block space is for. Bitcoin transactions can carry money and extra data. An OP_RETURN section is the obvious “note field” for small bits of data within transactions, and data pushes are another route - where users can place larger chunks of raw data inside Bitcoin script or witness data. Ordinals, inscriptions and some token schemes use those paths to put images, text or token metadata onchain. BIP-110 would temporarily tighten those paths for one year. It would cap OP_RETURN at the old small size, block most arbitrary data chunks above 256 bytes, and restrict some script formats used mainly for data storage. Supporters say this keeps Bitcoin focused on payments and lowers node burden, but critics think it turns a policy fight into a consensus rule and tells users which transactions are “acceptable.” Two of Bitcoin's most influential figures came out against it on Saturday. Strategy founder Michael Saylor posted that "there are 110 things more dangerous to Bitcoin than spam," arguing the proposal "turns a spam dispute into a consensus change that would invalidate some currently valid, fee-paying transactions." The precedent, he wrote, is the real danger. There are 110 things more dangerous to Bitcoin than spam. BIP 110 turns a spam dispute into a consensus change that would invalidate some currently valid, fee-paying transactions. That precedent is the danger. We should save our energy for threats that really matter. $BTC https://t.co/LoSkl9XSo1 — Michael Saylor (@saylor) July 11, 2026 Adam Back, the Blockstream co-founder whose hashcash design is cited in the bitcoin white paper, made a similar case at greater length, addressed to the newcomers backing the proposal. "Bitcoin respectfully says no to what you want," he said , adding that their real recourse, if unconvinced, is to group together and fork away, but that "bitcoin won't be joining it." The support data shows what the broader market really thinks. BIP 110 does not rely on the usual path of overwhelming miner approval, but uses a user-activated soft fork, a mechanism in which nodes enforce a rule whether or not miners agree, set to a 55% miner-signaling threshold rather than the traditional 95%. Backing is absent even at that significantly lower bar. Miner signaling has never risen above about 1% in any period and stands at zero in the current one, with no major mining pool behind it, according to the BIP 110 signaling monitor. Among the nodes that store and relay the chain, adoption sits in the low single digits, carried almost entirely by Bitcoin Knots, an alternative to the dominant Bitcoin Core software. The deadline arrives regardless. The current signaling period runs from block 957,600 to 959,615, and a voluntary lock-in deadline falls at block 961,542 in the following period, expected in early August. Nodes running BIP 110 software would then begin rejecting any block that does not signal support, with activation projected near September. In practice, a rule enforced by a few percent of nodes and almost no miners does not change Bitcoin for everyone but would split off a minority chain. As such, Bitcoin's resistance to change is not written down anywhere, but is the product of thousands of independent operators who each have to opt in as a means of consensus. The underlying spam concern is real. Blocks have carried more non-financial data since the October change, and reasonable people see that as a drift from Bitcoin as money toward Bitcoin as a database. But Bitcoin changes only when the network agrees to run the change, and on the evidence so far, it will not run this one. Latest Crypto News 1 Lending protocol Bonzo loses 77% of value locked as $9 million oracle exploit rattles Hedera 11 hours ago 2 Crypto IPO market stalls as capital rotates to AI and macro uncertainty weighs 12 hours ago 3 The UK has finally shown it’s serious about crypto 14 hours ago 4 Bitcoin treasury company Empery Digital sold about half of its BTC stack 17 hours ago 5 AI found an Ethereum bug that could take validators offline, but humans had to prove it 17 hours ago 6 Bitcoin analysts predict $300,000–$500,000 price in 2029. The math says no Jul 11, 2026 7 Meta's Chief Data Officer Says Agentic Commerce is the "Next Tier of Business" Jul 10, 2026 8 U.S. government digital dollar set to be banned tonight under housing law's CBDC limit Jul 10, 2026 9 Hyundai becomes first major South Korean company to introduce internal stablecoin transfers Jul 10, 2026 10 OKX, MetaMask, Matter Labs back dispute resolution court for AI agents Jul 10, 2026 Latest Research Digital Assets: Quarterly Review and Outlook Q2 Digital Assets: Quarterly Review and Outlook Q2 Digital assets posted a third consecutive quarter of losses in Q2 2026, the longest losing streak since the 2022 bear market, as institutional capital rotated into AI equities and Bitcoin ETFs recorded their largest quarterly outflow since launch. Our report examines what drove the divergence, where structural adoption continued regardless, and what Q3 signals to watch. By CoinDesk Research Jul 10, 2026 Digital assets posted a third consecutive quarter of losses in Q2 2026, the longest losing streak since the 2022 bear market, as institutional capital rotated into AI equities and Bitcoin ETFs recorded their largest quarterly outflow since launch. Our report examines what drove the divergence, where structural adoption continued regardless, and what Q3 signals to watch. Why it matters : Digital assets posted a third consecutive quarter of losses in Q2 2026, the longest losing streak since the 2022 bear market, as institutional capital rotated into AI equities and Bitcoin ETFs recorded their largest quarterly outflow since launch. Our report examines what drove the divergence, where structural adoption continued regardless, and what Q3 signals to watch. View Full Report More From Tech AI found an Ethereum bug that could take validators offline, but humans had to prove it Live updates: Bitcoin rises to $64,000 as SK Hynix opens for trade after $26.5 billion IPO Ethereum's newest nonprofit wants to become Wall Street's guide to crypto