Bitcoin's BIP-110 Fork Nears August Deadline With Miners Nowhere in Sight

BIP-110 would cap Bitcoin data storage for one year

BIP-110, formally titled the Reduced Data Temporary Soft Fork, proposes a one-year limit on non-financial data in Bitcoin transactions. Developer Dathon Ohm authored the plan in December 2025. It caps OP_RETURN fields at 83 bytes, restricts data pushes to 256 bytes, and limits most new outputs to 34 bytes. Inputs that spend coins created before activation stay permanently exempt from the new rules. The restrictions are temporary and would lift on their own about a year after they take effect.

The proposal revives Bitcoin's long-running data dispute

The plan revives a long argument over what belongs on the Bitcoin blockchain. Its rules target Ordinals inscriptions, BRC-20 tokens, and similar methods that embed arbitrary data inside transactions. Backers say tighter limits refocus the network on payments and reduce blockchain bloat. Critics counter that the change censors valid, fee-paying transactions and picks winners among users. Michael Saylor has argued that Bitcoin faces no spam problem serious enough to justify altering consensus rules.

Miner support has stayed near zero since signaling began

Miner backing for the proposal remains far below the level needed to activate it. Signaling has never risen above roughly 1% in any period and stands at zero in the current one, with no major mining pool behind it. One monitoring service recorded just 38 signaling blocks out of more than 9,000 since 1 May 2026, about 0.42%. Node adoption also sits in the low single digits. Miners register support by setting a bit in the block version field, and almost none have done so.

The fork needs 55% signaling before an August deadline

BIP-110 uses a modified activation method that requires 55% miner signaling, or 1,109 of 2,016 blocks in a difficulty period. That bar sits well below the traditional 95% threshold used for past soft forks. The current window runs toward a mandatory signaling period near block 961,632, expected in early August. If lock-in follows, activation would arrive near block 965,664, projected around 1 September 2026. At present support levels, the plan would create only a small minority chain rather than a network-wide change.

Saylor and Back reject the fork as a dangerous precedent

Prominent Bitcoin figures have lined up against the proposal ahead of the deadline. Michael Saylor, executive chairman of Strategy, warned that the change sets a harmful precedent by rewriting consensus rules over a data dispute. Adam Back, chief executive of Blockstream, has rejected the plan, and developer Jameson Lopp has called its activation parameters reckless. Both warn that a contested fork could split the chain and force exchanges and node operators to prepare for two networks.

"BIP 110 turns a spam dispute into a consensus change that would invalidate some currently valid, fee-paying transactions.", 12 July 2026. — Michael Saylor, Executive Chairman, Strategy

Bitcoin traded near $64,000 at time of publication

Bitcoin traded at $63,993 at the time of publication, down 0.56% over the past 24 hours against the previous close (CoinPaprika, 12 July 2026). The asset stood about 49% below its October 2025 record high of $126,173. The fork dispute has not triggered a sharp market reaction, with Bitcoin up 2.2% over the past seven days.

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