Miner signaling for the Bitcoin Improvement Proposal BIP-110 remains under one percent, casting doubt on its chances to alter Bitcoin's consensus rules.
BIP-110, led by pseudonymous developer Dathon Ohm and supported by the Knots community, aims to restrict the amount and type of arbitrary data in Bitcoin transactions by limiting scripting capabilities. The proposal is moving toward a mandatory signaling period that could trigger a fork conflicting with Bitcoin Core’s consensus.
Knots is backed by operators of Bitcoin nodes on hardware like Start9 and Umbrel, and includes contributors such as Luke Dashjr. The community formed partly in response to development decisions by Bitcoin Core, which remains the dominant reference implementation. However, most senior Bitcoin developers remain opposed or indifferent to BIP-110 changes.
Supporters of BIP-110 believe running signaling full nodes can change consensus, but this misunderstands the role and power of Bitcoin nodes. Influencers like Knut Svanholm emphasize nodes as the primary influencers in the network, a view that experts say overestimates individual node impact on consensus.
The debate around BIP-110 highlights confusion over Bitcoin’s consensus mechanisms and the limits of node influence. Given the low miner adoption rate, the softfork is unlikely to succeed in changing Bitcoin’s protocol.
This article reflects the author’s opinions and does not represent Bitcoin Magazine or BTC Inc.
