Saylor and Back push back on BIP-110
Bitcoin’s BIP-110 proposal is drawing criticism from Strategy founder Michael Saylor and Blockstream co-founder Adam Back just weeks before an activation deadline that it appears set to miss.
The proposal would temporarily restrict the use of non-financial data on the Bitcoin network, including data tied to NFTs and similar activity. In a Saturday post, Saylor wrote that there are "110 things more dangerous to Bitcoin than spam." He said the measure turns a spam dispute into a consensus change that would invalidate some transactions that are currently valid and fee-paying, arguing that the precedent is the real danger. "We should save our energy for threats that really matter," he wrote.
Back also rejected the proposal in a separate post. Back, whose Hashcash work is cited in the Bitcoin white paper, said Bitcoin "respectfully says no to what you want," and told supporters that their option is to group together and fork away, but that "bitcoin won’t be joining it." He added, "the way you propose to achieve your ideas, hard-conflict with free cypherpunk permissionless money."
A temporary soft fork aimed at onchain data paths
Formally titled the Reduced Data Temporary Soft Fork, BIP-110 is designed to cut off the methods used by Ordinals, inscriptions, and token schemes such as BRC-20 to place images and metadata onchain.
Under the proposal, Bitcoin transaction data rules would be tightened for one year. That includes capping the OP_RETURN data field, blocking most arbitrary data chunks larger than 256 bytes, and limiting script formats used mainly for storage.
Supporters say those limits would keep Bitcoin centered on payments and reduce the burden on node operators. The dispute is another chapter in the long-running argument over what Bitcoin block space should be used for. Unchained linked it to the divide between Bitcoin Core and Knots node software, as well as Bitcoin Core’s move to expand OP_RETURN capacity in version 30.
Little support from miners or nodes
What stands out most about BIP-110 is how little backing it has received. The proposal is structured as a user-activated soft fork, meaning nodes would enforce the rule by rejecting blocks from miners that do not comply.
Instead of the more common 95% signaling threshold, BIP-110 uses a 55% bar. Even with that lower requirement, miner signaling has hovered around 1%, according to the BIP-110 signaling monitor, despite miners being able to signal support since March.
Node adoption remains in the low single digits and is concentrated mostly on Bitcoin Knots.
Deadline points to a likely miss
Developer Jameson Lopp has called the proposal "reckless" and "doomed to fail," warning that the lower threshold increases the odds of a chain split.
The deadline is set for no later than block 963,648, which is expected in early August. Unchained reported that a rule enforced by only a nominal share of nodes and almost no miners would not change Bitcoin for everyone. It would instead split off a minority chain.