Key Takeaways:
Strategy founder Michael Saylor published a 100-point essay Saturday rejecting BIP-110, a proposed Bitcoin softfork that would temporarily restrict transactions carrying non-payment data such as Ordinals inscriptions.
"Bitcoin's rules are neutral and should remain so," Saylor, executive chairman of Strategy, said in the essay posted July 18. "Using consensus changes to discourage a disputed but currently valid category of transactions sets a dangerous precedent."
BIP-110, introduced by pseudonymous developer Dathon Ohm and backed by Ocean mining pool co-founder Luke Dashjr, would introduce seven new consensus rules limiting data-heavy transactions. These include reducing new output sizes to 34 bytes and capping OP_RETURN outputs at 83 bytes. The proposal targets Ordinals inscriptions, BRC-20 tokens and Runes protocols, which its supporters consider spam.
The proposal has failed to gain traction. Miner support stands at less than 1%, far short of the 55% threshold needed for lock-in, with no major pools — Foundry USA, AntPool or F2Pool — indicating support. A mandatory deadline at block 961,632, expected in early August, could trigger a minority chain split if BIP-110 nodes reject non-compliant blocks. Bitcoin traded near $63,944 at the time of the essay, up 1.43% in 24 hours.
Saylor's essay argues the softfork would transform a dispute over block space usage into a consensus change that invalidates valid, fee-paying transactions. He listed 110 things he considers more dangerous to Bitcoin than so-called spam transactions, including regulatory overreach, mining centralization and software bugs.
The opposition places Saylor alongside Blockstream CEO Adam Back, who this week dismissed claims that Satoshi Nakamoto would have backed BIP-110. "Bitcoin politely says no to what you want," Back said on X, predicting the fork attempt would collapse within weeks of the mandatory deadline.
BIP-110 relies on a User-Activated Soft Fork mechanism with a 55% miner threshold, well below the traditional 95% required for most Bitcoin upgrades. Bitcoin Core, the implementation used by the vast majority of network nodes, will not integrate the proposal. Only operators running Bitcoin Knots with voluntary configuration changes would participate. Since miner voting began in spring 2026, support has never exceeded 1%, with nearly all blocks showing support coming from Ocean.
The proposal has also drawn a counterproposal from the Ordinals ecosystem. Developer Leonidas introduced DOG Mode, an alternative Bitcoin client that relaxes default relay policies rather than tightening them, representing the philosophical mirror image of BIP-110.
The debate reflects a deeper philosophical divide over Bitcoin's governance. Supporters of BIP-110 view block space as a scarce resource that should be reserved for financial settlement. Opponents, including Saylor and Back, argue the protocol's neutrality is its core value proposition — any valid transaction paying the prevailing fee is equally legitimate.
The outcome could shape how future Bitcoin upgrades are proposed and contested. A failed UASF attempt may discourage similar efforts, while a contentious split — however small — would test the network's ability to resolve governance disputes without a central authority.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
