Rows of Bitcoin mining computers operating inside a mining facility

Bitcoin’s BIP-110 Deadline Just Hit. The First Blocks Show What Miners Chose

By Isaac • August 8, 2026 4:15 pm • Comments

Bitcoin’s most contentious protocol fight of 2026 just crossed the line from argument to live chain behavior.

The BIP-110 mandatory-signaling window began at block 961,632 on Saturday afternoon.

The first three blocks on the dominant Bitcoin chain did not signal support.

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That is the first real answer miners have given since the deadline arrived.

The synchronized BIP-110 signaling monitor showed the chain at block 961,634 at 3:40 p.m. Central, with zero signaling blocks out of three in the new 2,016-block period and every counted block still following the ordinary dominant-chain rules without interruption.

The sample is tiny. It does not settle the next two weeks.

It does show that the dominant chain kept moving without adopting the version bit BIP-110 supporters demanded.

The monitor’s API reported that it was synchronized with the public Bitcoin tip. It identified the new window as difficulty period 477, running from block 961,632 through block 963,647, and fixed the target at 55% of all blocks in that period.

That means the live counter is not a social-media poll or a survey of mining companies. It reads the version field miners put into actual blocks and tallies the result against the chain Bitcoin nodes are receiving.

The target does not move with hash-rate estimates or public statements. Every new block adds one measurable yes-or-no entry until the period closes at block 963,647.

Bitcoin developer b10c was watching the boundary across more than 50 nodes running several Bitcoin implementations and following the blocks produced by more than 20 mining pools.

That matters because non-signaling blocks are invalid only to nodes running the BIP-110 enforcement rules. Ordinary Bitcoin nodes continue to accept them.

The canonical BIP-110 specification calls the proposal the Reduced Data Temporary Softfork.

Its goal is to restrict several methods used to place arbitrary data inside Bitcoin transactions for roughly one year. The rules cap most new output scripts at 34 bytes, limit OP_RETURN outputs to 83 bytes, restrict large witness items and disable several Taproot techniques that can carry inscriptions or other data.

The proposal also includes a grandfather clause. Coins created before activation remain spendable under the old rules, which is designed to prevent existing UTXOs from being trapped by the temporary restrictions.

The temporary rules apply only to outputs created after activation and expire after 52,416 blocks, roughly one year, unless another proposal extends them. The specification also acknowledges tradeoffs for advanced Taproot scripts, Miniscript constructions and experimental systems such as BitVM.

BIP-110 is marked “Complete” in the repository. That means the specification is finished.

It does not mean Bitcoin adopted it.

Supporters see the proposal as a defense of Bitcoin’s monetary purpose. They argue that Ordinals, BRC-20 tokens and other embedded files force every full node to carry permanent storage costs while miners collect only a one-time transaction fee.

Opponents see a more dangerous precedent: changing consensus rules to judge one valid use of block space as unacceptable, then using a minority-enforcement path to pressure the rest of the network.

The Fork Talk BIP-110 timeline explains the mechanism now in effect and separates the current signaling requirement from the later lock-in, activation and one-year expiration milestones.

Miners signal readiness by setting version bit 4. BIP-110 needs 1,109 signaling blocks in one 2,016-block difficulty period to reach its 55% threshold.

If voluntary support does not lock it in, BIP-110 nodes enter mandatory signaling from block 961,632 through block 963,647. Those nodes reject every block that does not carry the bit, even when the block remains valid to the rest of Bitcoin.

That is why Saturday’s first blocks matter. The same proof of work can now lead two groups of nodes to different conclusions.

The community timeline also makes clear that existing funds are not being confiscated and ordinary payment formats remain valid. The dispute is over which new transaction structures nodes will accept and whether a mandatory flag-day mechanism has enough economic support to define Bitcoin for the wider market.

Its countdown separates three events that are often blurred together: mandatory bit signaling now, final lock-in after this difficulty period and enforcement of the stricter transaction rules one period later.

On the dominant chain, blocks 961,632, 961,633 and 961,634 were accepted as ordinary Bitcoin blocks.

On enforcing BIP-110 nodes, those non-signaling blocks were rejected.

The Bitcoin Foundation’s technical explainer lays out the three paths from here and shows why software completion, miner signaling, node enforcement and economic adoption are four different tests rather than one approval event.

Miners could change course and push signaling above 55%. BIP-110 could also remain on a small minority chain.

The third path is that the minority effort loses practical relevance while the dominant Bitcoin chain continues under its existing rules, leaving exchanges and wallets with no reason to recognize a separate market.

The explainer also separates mandatory signaling from full activation. The BIP-110 path is scheduled to lock in no later than block 963,648, followed by activation of the new transaction rules at block 965,664.

That leaves roughly two weeks for the signaling count to develop and another difficulty period before the stricter transaction rules would turn on.

The scenarios produce very different outcomes for ordinary holders. Broad miner support could keep upgraded and ordinary nodes together, while minority enforcement could leave two chains advancing at different speeds under different validity rules.

A retreat would leave today’s Bitcoin consensus rules in place and turn BIP-110 into another completed proposal that never became a widely recognized network upgrade.

The explainer notes that Bitcoin Core has not adopted the BIP-110 implementation and that visible miner support was far below the threshold before the window opened. It tells users to watch mining-pool behavior, exchange contingency plans and the gap between node software choices and economic recognition.

Michael Saylor, whose company Strategy remains the best-known corporate Bitcoin holder, argued Saturday that the outcome is already clear:

Saylor’s conclusion goes beyond the available block sample. The mandatory period had produced only three dominant-chain blocks when the live snapshot was taken.

The economic side of the dispute is just as important as the block count.

Bitcoin.com explained that a minority BIP-110 chain would likely run with much less hash power and slower blocks until difficulty adjusted.

Exchanges, wallets and payment processors would then have to decide whether to recognize it, pause deposits, add a separate asset or ignore the fork. Replay protection, settlement confidence and naming would become practical questions even if the dominant chain never paused.

The report also noted that the enforcing chain could survive or disappear depending on whether miners keep supplying proof of work and whether users assign the resulting asset any value. A technical chain can exist without becoming the Bitcoin recognized by the broader market.

That is where price tickers, custody policies and exchange deposit rules become more important than slogans from either side. A minority chain with no liquidity or infrastructure can be technically alive while remaining economically marginal.

That distinction is critical. Bitcoin did not suddenly stop at block 961,632.

The chain tip advanced, miners collected block rewards and ordinary nodes continued validating blocks under the rules they already used.

What changed is that a subset of nodes began refusing those blocks.

Bitcoin traded near $65,000 during Saturday’s session and retained a market value above $1.3 trillion. That economic network is much larger than a software flag, but software rules still determine which chain each participant recognizes.

The next 2,013 blocks will show whether miners treat BIP-110 as a serious activation demand or leave it as a minority fork with no broad economic backing.

The first three votes are in.

They were all no.

Featured image: Marko Ahtisaari, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/). Resized from the original.

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