Bitcoin hits block 961,632 as the controversial BIP-110 soft fork attempt begins

Bitcoin has reached block 961,632, triggering the long-awaited mandatory signaling period for BIP-110, a controversial proposal designed to temporarily curb non-financial data from being embedded on the network.

The proposal entered the signaling phase at around 19:35 UTC on Saturday, with support from miners seldom exceeding 2.5%, a long way short of the 55% mark required.

Prominent Bitcoin voices such as Strategy chairman Michael Saylor and Blockstream CEO Adam Back have also voiced their opposition to the proposal.

Its supporters, however, are pushing BIP-110 as a user-activated soft fork (UASF), meaning it would rely on node operators, not miners, to force the rule change. Users would update their node software to reject any block from miners that fails to signal support for BIP-110, effectively attempting to coerce miners into line or cut them off entirely.

BIP-110’s proponents maintain there is an historic precedent for this outlook in the 2017 activation of SegWit via BIP-148, which enabled the separation of digital signatures from transaction data and was accepted by users not having the required support from miners.