An experimental Bitcoin branch tied to BIP-110 has ground to a halt after producing just two blocks, underscoring how little mining power is currently backing the enforcing fork as mandatory signaling moves forward.
A Fork That Barely Got Going
The BIP-110 branch, which enforces a set of consensus rules through mandatory signaling, has stalled at Bitcoin's full mining difficulty after mining only a pair of blocks. Because the chain remains pinned to the network's complete difficulty target, the handful of miners supporting it face an enormous computational burden with almost no collective hashpower to share the load.
The result is a widening gap between the enforcing branch and Bitcoin's main chain, which continues to churn out blocks roughly every ten minutes as the vast majority of the network's hashrate stays put.
With only two blocks mined, the enforcing branch is a chain in name more than in practice.
Why Hashpower Matters
Bitcoin's difficulty adjustment is designed for the entire network's mining power, so any splinter chain that attracts only a sliver of that hashrate will produce blocks painfully slowly. Without a meaningful share of miners migrating over, the BIP-110 branch cannot keep pace, leaving it effectively frozen while mandatory signaling continues.
The episode highlights the practical hurdles facing contentious consensus changes. Proposals that rely on miner enforcement need broad participation to function, and a fork that cannot muster hashpower struggles to demonstrate viability or force the rest of the network to follow.
- The branch produced only two blocks before stalling.
- It remains stuck at Bitcoin's full mining difficulty.
- Mandatory signaling proceeds despite minimal miner support.
What Comes Next
For now, the enforcing fork sits largely dormant, a reminder that changes to Bitcoin's rules ultimately hinge on economic and mining consensus rather than code alone. Unless a substantial bloc of miners chooses to back the branch, its blocks will continue arriving at a trickle while the primary chain marches ahead undisturbed.
Observers will be watching whether signaling gains any momentum or whether the effort fades entirely, joining a long list of Bitcoin proposals that failed to win over the network's decisive stakeholders.