BIP-110 Nears Signaling Deadline as Major Mining Pools Stay Silent
A proposed change to what Bitcoin miners are allowed to include in the blocks they produce is approaching a critical deadline, and so far the network’s biggest players aren’t showing up to support it.
BIP-110, a proposed soft fork that would restrict certain types of non-financial data from being embedded in Bitcoin transactions, is nearing its mandatory signaling window, the period during which miners indicate support for a proposed protocol change by including specific markers in the blocks they mine. Major mining pools have shown little movement toward supporting it so far, leaving the proposal’s path forward genuinely uncertain.
The proposal has proven divisive within the Bitcoin community. Supporters argue that non-financial data embedded in transactions, a practice that expanded significantly following the rise of inscription-based projects in recent years, bloats the blockchain unnecessarily and drives up transaction fees for ordinary financial use. Critics counter that restricting what data can be included undermines Bitcoin’s fundamentally permissionless design, arguing that miners and node operators shouldn’t have the ability to selectively censor transaction content based on its type.
Soft forks require broad, coordinated support to activate safely, and a proposal that fails to reach sufficient miner signaling within its window typically stalls rather than forcing activation, since Bitcoin’s governance model has no central authority capable of pushing a change through against significant resistance.
The muted mining pool response so far suggests BIP-110 may struggle to reach the threshold needed for activation in its current signaling window, though proponents have indicated they may pursue alternative activation paths if this attempt falls short.
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