BIP-110 Soft Fork Implodes: Mines Just Two Blocks Before Grinding to a Halt

A Bitcoin soft fork built around BIP-110 split from the main chain after block 961,632 this week, and it barely got off the ground. The pool backing it, Roughnecks, mined exactly two blocks before the rest of the network’s hashpower left it stranded.

The split was supposed to test whether a determined group of node operators could force miners to fall in line on data spam. Instead, it showed how little leverage a minority actually has once the hashrate refuses to follow.

The Fork Stalls Within Hours

BIP-110 needed miners to signal support by block 961,632, or a mandatory signaling rule would take over. When AntPool mined the first non-signaling block, nodes running Bitcoin Knots split into their own chain. Roughnecks found blocks 961,632 and 961,633 on that branch, then nothing more. Bitcoin’s original chain kept moving at its usual pace and reached block 961,651, opening an 18-block lead within about a day.

The math comes down to difficulty. Bitcoin’s mining difficulty had just adjusted to 127.48T, a target both chains inherited. With only a sliver of total hashpower behind it, the BIP-110 branch found blocks far slower than the usual ten minutes.

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