As of mid-July 2026, the initiative to implement the BIP-110 soft fork in the Bitcoin network has faced total disregard from the mining industry. According to monitoring data, the level of support for this proposal among major mining pools hovers around a critically low one percent. It is worth recalling that the BIP-110 document proposes a strict, temporary limitation on the volume of data in transactions not related to direct financial transfers. Specifically, the initiative seeks to significantly curtail the capabilities of the OP_RETURN script, block the transmission of any data chunks larger than two hundred and fifty-six bytes, and introduce strict bans on certain script formats historically used for storing arbitrary information on the blockchain. The activation mechanism for this change was conceived as a User-Activated Soft Fork (UASF), which would allow nodes to apply the new rules regardless of the miners' will, while the support threshold for miners was artificially lowered to fifty-five percent instead of the standard ninety-five percent. However, in none of the two-week difficulty adjustment periods, each comprising two thousand and sixteen blocks, has support exceeded minimal values. Among node operators, support remains at a mere few percent, driven almost exclusively by the use of the alternative Bitcoin Knots software rather than the core Bitcoin Core client.

The current evaluation period covers blocks from number nine hundred and fifty-seven thousand six hundred to nine hundred and fifty-nine thousand six hundred and fifteen, and the voluntary threshold for activation expires at block height nine hundred and sixty-one thousand six hundred and thirty-two in the next cycle, which will occur in early August. Experts emphasize that even if miners fail to reach the required percentage of support by the deadline, the fork could formally still be activated, presumably in September. However, it is critically important to understand that this update would affect exclusively those nodes that independently and voluntarily decide to support the new rules. As a result of such a scenario, these nodes would form a separate, marginal, and minority chain, devoid of real computational power and economic value, while the overwhelming majority of the Bitcoin network would continue to function in its usual, time-tested mode, completely ignoring the imposed restrictions.

Against the backdrop of such an obvious failure of the initiative, some of the most influential figures in the crypto industry have voiced harsh and well-reasoned criticism against BIP-110: Strategy founder Michael Saylor and Blockstream co-founder Adam Back. Saylor stated that there are many things far more dangerous to Bitcoin than network spam, and he accused the proposal's authors of attempting to turn a standard ideological debate into a forced consensus change. In his view, such a move could invalidate a portion of already processed and user-paid transactions, which represents a direct existential threat to the trust in the first cryptocurrency's network. Adam Back, in turn, addressed the fork's supporters directly, noting that while he understands their desire to protect the network from informational noise, the chosen method is categorically unacceptable. The expert emphasized that the primary mission of digital gold is to build a free market based on hard money, not controlled by any single participant or group. The absence of a central management authority means that no one has the right to impose their subjective views on acceptable transaction formats on others. Back compared Bitcoin's decision-making process to the strict standards of the IETF, where no single developer can push through a change without rigorous scrutiny by hundreds of independent ecosystem participants. "Bitcoin respectfully says 'no'," he summarized, adding that dissenters can always create their own fork, but the main Bitcoin network will categorically not join it.

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The material is prepared solely for informational purposes and does not constitute a financial advice or recommendation.