A Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP-110) pushing to ban Ordinals-style data inscriptions at the consensus level is barreling toward an activation window in early August, with less than 1% of mining hashrate behind it, raising legitimate concerns about a persistent chain split.
Key Takeaways:
BIP-110 targets Ordinals and inscription data with a 1-year soft fork, facing 0.31% miner signaling as of June 2026.Adam Back and Jameson Lopp warn that the proposal risks a Bitcoin chain split, calling activation parameters reckless and technically flawed.A mandatory signaling window at block 961632 (est. Aug. 7, 2026) will test whether Ocean pool and node runners can force compliance without miner majority support.The activation parameters are aggressive. BIP-110 uses a modified BIP9 deployment requiring only 55% miner signaling (1,109 of 2,016 blocks per retarget period) rather than the traditional 95% threshold. If that threshold is not met naturally, a mandatory signaling window beginning around block 961632 (projected Aug. 7, 2026) will reject any block that fails to signal bit 4.
The X account added:
Supporters Push BackSupporters also argue miners will not sacrifice block rewards over spam fees once the choice becomes real, limiting sustained split risk. Others invoke BIP148, the 2017 UASF that helped force Segwit activation, as precedent for user-activated pressure working despite miner resistance.
What Comes NextThe mandatory block window arrives in approximately six weeks. That is enough time for signaling to shift dramatically or for the ecosystem to move firmly in the other direction.
