Ripple former chief technology officer David Schwartz said on Aug. 31 that backers of the Bitcoin BIP-110 fork crossed the line from governance into attacking the network after rejecting the soft-fork outcome and continuing to run an independent proof-of-work chain. In his view, losing a consensus dispute does not justify launching a separate Bitcoin chain, and doing so is itself an attack. The BIP-110 fork chain was activated at block height 961,640 through a flag-day hard fork. It replaced the SHA256d mining algorithm with BLAKE2b, introduced a new 164-byte block header, and added temporary rules that cap block size at about 300 KB until September 2027. Bitcoin Knots developer Luke Dashjr defended the changes, saying BLAKE2b lacks known weaknesses associated with SHA256d and that the redesigned block header closes a block-withholding flaw that previously required miner monitoring to detect. The fork grew out of Bitcoin Core removing old limits on OP_RETURN data, which opened more block space to non-monetary content including Ordinals and Runes. BIP-110 supporters wanted to preserve that space for payments. After the split, supporting mining pool Roughnecks produced only two blocks before the branch stalled, and the gap with the main chain widened to hundreds of blocks within weeks.
Ripple former chief technology officer David Schwartz said on Aug. 31 that supporters of the Bitcoin BIP-110 fork moved from governance into attacking the network after refusing the soft-fork result and continuing to run an independent proof-of-work chain.
Schwartz said losing a consensus fight does not justify creating a new Bitcoin chain, and that the act itself constitutes an attack.
BIP-110 chain activated at block 961,640
The BIP-110 fork chain was activated at block height 961,640 in a flag-day hard fork. The change replaced the SHA256d mining algorithm with BLAKE2b, introduced a new 164-byte block header, and set temporary rules that limit block size to about 300 KB until September 2027.
Luke Dashjr defends the changes
Bitcoin Knots developer Luke Dashjr defended the fork, saying BLAKE2b does not have the known weaknesses of SHA256d. He also said the newly designed block header closes a block-withholding vulnerability that previously could only be spotted through miner monitoring.
Fork tied to OP_RETURN policy change
The fork followed Bitcoin Core removing old limits on OP_RETURN data, allowing more non-monetary content, including Ordinals and Runes, to fill blocks. BIP-110 supporters wanted to keep that block space available for payments.
After the split, supporting mining pool Roughnecks mined only two blocks before the branch stalled. Within weeks, the gap between that branch and the main chain had widened to hundreds of blocks.
The report was attributed to CryptoPotato and cited by Techub.
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