Controversial Bitcoin Fork Stalls After Only Two Blocks

Minority BIP-110 Fork Fails to Gain Traction

A contentious Bitcoin fork that split from the mainnet on Saturday under the BIP-110 proposal has effectively stalled due to a severe lack of mining hash power. The minority chain produced only two blocks over roughly eight hours, while the main Bitcoin network advanced by about 48 blocks in the same period.

How the Split Happened

The chain split occurred at block height 961,632 when nodes running BIP-110 began rejecting blocks that did not signal support for the proposal. BIP-110 seeks to temporarily restrict the inclusion of non-financial data—such as images, text, and other arbitrary payloads—in Bitcoin transactions for one year. Supporters argue this would free up block space and lower transaction fees for financial transfers, while critics counter that paying the fee should grant users the right to use block space.

Hash Power and Difficulty: Why the Fork Stalled

The fork inherited Bitcoin's current mining difficulty but lacks a comparable number of miners. Because Bitcoin's difficulty only adjusts every 2,016 blocks, the minority chain must mine toward that window at its current reduced rate. Estimates indicate it would take this fork about 350 days to reach the next difficulty recalibration, whereas the mainnet will hit that same milestone in roughly 14 days. That imbalance has left the minority chain slow and vulnerable.

Low Support and Security Risks

Over the past two weeks, just 2.53% of mined blocks signaled support for BIP-110—far below the roughly 55% backing that would have been necessary to avoid a damaging split. Because transactions can be identical on both chains, users face elevated risks of replay attacks and other security problems unless explicit protections are implemented by wallets and exchanges.

For crypto traders, miners, and developers, this stalled fork underscores how crucial mining hash power, consensus support, and careful coordination are when attempting contentious protocol changes on the Bitcoin blockchain.