Bitcoin miners reject BIP-110 fork after two blocks

BIP‑110, a controversial proposal designed to curb spam on the Bitcoin network, failed to gain traction on Saturday, stalling after only two blocks. The fork, backed by the Knots community, saw a tiny fraction of the network’s hashpower push ahead, while the vast majority of miners continued to mine on the main chain. The result was a brief, isolated chain that quickly fell behind and was abandoned by most participants.

The idea behind BIP‑110 is to make it harder for spammers to flood the network with low‑value transactions. The proposal would require miners to include a special “spam‑counter” field in blocks, making it more costly for attackers to send massive amounts of tiny, meaningless payments. Knots, a group of developers and users who favor stricter network rules, argued that the measure would protect the network’s integrity and reduce congestion. However, many in the broader mining community saw it as an unnecessary change that could disrupt the consensus mechanism and create uncertainty for users and exchanges.

When the fork was activated, only a handful of mining rigs followed the new protocol, contributing a small share of the overall hashrate. Within hours, the main chain regained dominance, and the BIP‑110 blocks were orphaned. Critics pointed to the lack of coordination and the absence of a clear incentive for miners to adopt the fork as key reasons for its failure. Supporters of the proposal said the experiment highlighted the need for broader consensus and better communication before pushing such changes. The incident underscores the challenges of implementing protocol upgrades in a decentralized ecosystem where miners hold significant power. The Bitcoin community will likely revisit the spam‑control debate, but any future attempts will need stronger backing from both miners and developers to succeed.