BIP-110 Bitcoin Data Limit Proposal Nears Deadline, Miner Support Remains Near 0

BlockBeats News, July 12th. The Bitcoin BIP-110 proposal is approaching its deadline in early August, but the current miner support rate remains below 1%, indicating significant resistance to the proposal. BIP-110, short for "Reduce Temporary Soft Forks for Data," is primarily contentious due to its aim to limit non-financial data on the Bitcoin blockchain. The proposal plans to restrict OP_RETURN data capacity over one year, prohibit most arbitrary data writes over 256 bytes, and constrain certain script formats predominantly used for data storage.

Supporters argue that the proposal would allow the Bitcoin network to focus more on its payment function and reduce node operation pressure. Opponents, on the other hand, believe this would escalate the policy dispute on block space usage to a consensus rule change, deciding which transactions are considered "acceptable."

Both Michael Saylor, the founder of MicroStrategy, and Adam Back, the co-founder of Blockstream, have publicly opposed BIP-110. Saylor stated, "There are 110 things more dangerous than junk data," and mentioned that the proposal would "transform the junk data dispute into a consensus change, rendering some currently valid and fee-paying transactions invalid." Adam Back mentioned that if supporters cannot accept the current state, they can choose to fork, but "Bitcoin will not be joining."

Data indicates that BIP-110 employs a user-activated soft fork mechanism with a 55% miner signaling threshold. However, the current miner signaling rate has never exceeded about 1%, with the present period at 0, and no major mining pools supporting it. The percentage of nodes running BIP-110 software remains in the single digits, primarily from Bitcoin Knots users.

The ongoing signaling period for this proposal is expected to conclude around block height 959,615, entering a voluntary lockdown phase in early August and planning for activation around September. If broad support is still lacking by then, it could lead to a minority of nodes forming a divergent chain.