Bitcoin’s Splintered BIP-110 Fork Falls Behind by 18 Blocks

After two years of bitter bickering, Bitcoin has blown past the BIP-110 signaling line at block 961632, and reality is now doing the talking as BTC blocks keep stacking. BIP-110 supporters appear stunned by the outcome, while the Bitcoin Knots creator Luke Dashjr has issued a notice to everyone.

“PSA: If you haven’t upgraded to Bitcoin Knots 29.3.knots20260508 (or 29.4) yet, you are now vulnerable to double-spending attacks aided by [Foundry and Antpool],” Dashjr wrote on the social media platform X. In bold lettering, he also said, “Upgrade ASAP to avoid accepting counterfeit bitcoins.”

Dathon Ohm, the anonymous architect behind BIP-110, also took to X and further insisted:

“The Bitcoin network is currently under attack from hostile miners.”

Roughnecks Drills Again as Bitcoin’s Main Chain Pulls Away

As Bitcoin.com News previously reported, BIP-110-supporting mining outfit Roughnecks went head-to-head with Antpool for block 961632. Antpool won the race on the dominant Bitcoin chain, while Roughnecks’ competing 961632 block remained stranded on the BIP-110 version. Since then, Roughnecks has managed to grind out another block on the minority chain at height 961633.

Throwing another curveball into an already chaotic block, Bitcoin’s mining difficulty also adjusted at height 961632, climbing to 127.48 trillion just as the blockchain split into competing versions. That difficulty jump makes life especially brutal for the BIP-110 minority chain.

Bitcoin’s difficulty does not magically fall when most miners disappear, meaning Roughnecks and its allies are still trying to solve blocks against the same 127.48 trillion difficulty target with only a sliver of the main chain’s computing power. Unless considerably more hashrate joins the breakaway chain, blocks could crawl in at painfully slow intervals, leaving BIP-110 effectively stuck waiting for enough blocks to reach its next difficulty adjustment.

Ocean-Linked Hashrate Breaks Ranks on the Dominant Chain

Adding another wrinkle to the split, Simple Mining, an Iowa-based hosting heavyweight that points hashrate toward Ocean Mining, mined Bitcoin block 961634 on the dominant chain. Simple Mining uses Ocean’s DATUM system, which lets individual miners and hosters build their own block templates, including whether to set the BIP-110 version bit.

That makes the block especially notable. Ocean has been closely tied to the BIP-110 camp, with Dashjr serving as the pool’s CTO and much of the proposal’s early signaling coming through Ocean and DATUM miners. Yet Simple Mining’s block landed squarely on Bitcoin’s dominant chain, another sign that Ocean-linked hashrate is not moving in lockstep with the BIP-110 minority fork.

Roughnecks Continues ‘Wildcatting’ on the Breakaway Chain

Roughnecks’ 110th Mining Division celebrated successfully drilling out two consecutive BIP-110 blocks, 961632 and 961633, likening the feat to “wildcatting” in the oil patch, where prospectors gamble big on unproven ground in hopes of striking pay dirt. Whether that proves to be the case remains to be seen. After Roughnecks posted, Dashjr reposted the post on X.

BIP-110 Supporters Insist Bitcoin Is Broken, Open to PoW Algo Change for Minority Chain

BIP-110 supporters have not taken the outcome well. “RIP Bitcoin. You just became only another captured speculative asset. Sorry Satoshi, we failed you,” one X user and BIP-110 proponent called BTCbello lamented. One of BIP-110’s most vocal and recognizable proponents, Matthew Kratter, acknowledged that it would now take an “absolute miracle” for the BIP-110 chain to overtake the legacy chain.

Other BIP-110 supporters, meanwhile, still signaled an openness to changing the minority chain’s mining algorithm. “We have nothing to lose by starting new with a POW. So much potential and freedom in being able to see what just clearly happened and make the corrections needed to keep this alive. This is Independence Day for sound and decentralized money,” the X account Maitreya Lockwood said in response to Kratter’s latest video on the subject.