Bitcoin’s BIP-110 Proposal Sparks Governance and Censorship Dispute

BIP-110, formally the Reduced Data Temporary Softfork, seeks to tighten Bitcoin's consensus limits on OP_RETURN and other arbitrary-data methods for about one year, targeting Ordinals-style inscriptions without changing ordinary payments. Supporters say the measure would curb blockchain bloat and refocus Bitcoin on money; critics say it would censor transactions that are valid under Bitcoin Core and pay fees. Its user-activated design matters because nodes can enforce rules without miner assent, testing whether exchanges, custodians, users and hashpower will coordinate around the same chain rather than treating miner signaling as a binding vote.

Bitcoin reached block 961,632 on Aug. 8, 2026, opening BIP-110's mandatory-signaling window with miner support at about 2.53%, far below the 55% threshold, or 1,109 of 2,016 blocks. AntPool mined a non-signaling block on the main chain while Roughnecks produced a competing BIP-110 block; the minority branch added block 961,633 and then stalled under Bitcoin's inherited mining difficulty. Within roughly eight hours it had produced only two blocks as the main network moved 18 blocks ahead, with the gap later reaching 26. The episode left the proposal progressing by schedule but without the economic coordination needed for network-wide adoption.

BIP-110, a soft-fork proposal promoted by bitcoin mining pool OCEAN, sought to filter inscriptions and other non-financial data from the network in an effort to preserve Bitcoin’s role as a monetary system. The initiative became a broader test of governance because deciding which transactions qualify as legitimate could conflict with Bitcoin’s permissionless design, neutrality and decentralized rule-setting.

The proposal failed to secure community consensus after influential bitcoin figures including Michael Saylor and Adam Back opposed it, arguing that transaction filtering could establish a precedent for censorship and deepen governance divisions. BIP-110 was ultimately rejected, according to the cited report. The account did not specify the rejection date, vote count, activation threshold or financial amounts involved, indicating that the outcome reflected an inability to assemble sufficient support for the soft fork rather than a formal corporate-style ballot.

BIP-110, or the Reduced Data Temporary Soft Fork, proposes a soft fork lasting about one year to restrict non-monetary data written to the Bitcoin blockchain through OP_RETURN, inscriptions and other methods. Supporters say it would curb blockchain bloat and preserve Bitcoin’s use for payments. Opponents argue that fee-paying transactions should not be censored, turning the dispute into a broader battle over block space and governance rights.

The first supporting block was mined on March 2, 2026. As of July 18, only eight of 940 blocks in the current signaling period had signaled support, or 0.85%, far below the 55% threshold, which requires 1,109 of 2,016 blocks. Strategy founder Michael Saylor and Blockstream co-founder Adam Back oppose the proposal. A mandatory signaling period is expected to begin in August, with activation possible as early as September, though the risk of a minority chain split remains.