Bitcoin Knots is trying to fork Bitcoin again after its last chain died in two blocks

Bitcoin Knots is preparing a Sunday rehearsal for a BLAKE2b fork after its previous breakaway BIP-110 chain stalled.

On Aug. 29, Bitcoin developer Luke Dashjr told SHA-2 miners to stop mining ahead of an Aug. 30 test that would replace Bitcoin’s SHA-256d proof of work with BLAKE2b on the proposed breakaway network.

Dashjr said Bitcoin Knots 29.4.1rc4 would establish the final SHA-2 block before the switch. If the rehearsal succeeds, a final 29.4.1 release could preserve the new chain on Sept. 1. However, problems would trigger another release candidate and a reset to the last SHA-2 block.

The attempt comes three weeks after BIP-110 split from the dominant Bitcoin chain and stalled after producing only two blocks. The new proposal seeks to avoid another dependence on existing Bitcoin miners by permanently moving the breakaway network to hardware using BLAKE2b proof of work.

But the weekend test begins with several questions still unresolved. As of Aug. 29, the public Bitcoin Knots release page did not show rc4 or a final 29.4.1 build, while key proof-of-work changes remained open.

The proposal had also not publicly identified a major exchange, wallet, custodian, explorer, or Lightning implementation committed to supporting the new chain.