A recent proposal known as BIP-110, which sought to restrict non-financial data embedded in Bitcoin transactions—specifically targeting Ordinals and Runes that include images, videos, or extensive text—failed to secure meaningful backing from miners. Over a critical assessment period, the upgrade received support from only 10 out of 2,016 mined blocks, representing less than 1% of the total Bitcoin hashrate, far short of the 55% threshold needed for activation.
BIP-110 was designed as a miner-activated soft fork (MASF) intended to curb what its proponents viewed as "network spam," with the goal of preserving Bitcoin’s primary function as a low-cost, peer-to-peer digital currency. Advocates like protocol developer Luke Davis Jr argued that preventing heavy data usage from Ordinals would maintain Bitcoin's efficiency and affordability for everyday transactions, warning that memecoin-related features increase transfer costs and put the original vision of Bitcoin at risk.
However, the proposal sparked significant controversy. Critics, including BitMEX Research, warned that BIP-110 could disrupt existing Bitcoin wallets and block transfers of over 1.7 million BTC, essentially breaking Bitcoin’s reliability as a censorship-resistant financial network. Such a move would mark an unprecedented step toward banning transaction formats, which many argue undermines the fundamental trust users place in Bitcoin.
Blockstream CEO Adam Back, a prominent voice in the debate, emphasized that Bitcoin’s censorship resistance is a core tenet mirroring internet freedom. He dismissed attempts to enforce censorship through BIP-110, stating that suppressing valid transaction data contradicts the network's foundational principles.
David Bailey, founder of the Bitcoin Conference and a treasury firm, described the decisive rejection of BIP-110 as a bullish signal for Bitcoin’s resilience, framing the failed proposal as a multi-year campaign by a controversial developer that was ultimately rebuffed by the community.
The window for miner signaling officially closed without sufficient activation support, while the possibility remains for users to attempt a soft fork in August. Given the overwhelming lack of miner endorsement, the likelihood of BIP-110’s activation appears remote, highlighting an ongoing division within the Bitcoin ecosystem over data use, network policy, and censorship.