Ripple’s David Schwartz calls breakaway Bitcoin fork an attack after BIP-110 split

Ripple CTO emeritus David Schwartz has sharply criticized recent efforts to launch a forked version of Bitcoin, labeling the initiative less a policy dispute than an attack under the guise of reform. Schwartz’s remarks, posted on August 31 in response to community discussions, highlight growing tensions within the Bitcoin ecosystem as competing visions for the network’s future surface.

Bitcoin Community Split Over BIP-110

The debate centers on BIP-110, a controversial proposal originally intended as a user-activated soft fork designed to restrict non-financial data on the Bitcoin blockchain. This approach failed to secure significant support from miners, with the overwhelming majority of hash power continuing to back the existing SHA-256d-based network. Only a handful of blocks were mined by the dissenting group.

After it became clear they could not implement the soft fork, BIP-110 advocates pursued a hard fork. The proposed fork would swap Bitcoin’s SHA-256d hashing algorithm for BLAKE2b, introduce a new block header structure, and establish temporary block size limits. Organizers aimed to launch this chain at block 961,640, effectively repositioning it as an alternative continuation of Bitcoin.