Bitcoin miners reject BIP 110 data restriction ahead of August deadline
A proposal to ban non-financial data from Bitcoin is set to fail due to near-zero miner backing, demonstrating the network's resistance to governance disputes even as the sector faces a third straight quarter of capital outflows.
A controversial proposal to restrict non-financial data on the Bitcoin blockchain is heading toward an early August deadline with virtually no mining support, all but guaranteeing its failure as a network-wide upgrade.
The BIP-110 measure, formally known as the Reduced Data Temporary Soft Fork, would cap OP_RETURN data and block arbitrary data chunks over 256 bytes for one year. Supporters argue the move would reduce node burden and refocus Bitcoin on payments by curbing Ordinals, inscriptions and token metadata. However, miner signaling has never exceeded 1% and currently stands at zero, with no major mining pool backing the plan.
The proposal relies on a user-activated soft fork mechanism, which requires nodes to enforce the rule regardless of miner consensus, setting a lowered signaling threshold of 55% compared to the traditional 95%. Node adoption remains in the low single digits, driven almost entirely by the alternative Bitcoin Knots software rather than the dominant Bitcoin Core. Without broader uptake, BIP-110 will not alter the main Bitcoin network but will instead split off into a minor, fragmented chain when the voluntary lock-in period expires around block 961,542.
Prominent industry figures have actively rallied against the initiative. Strategy founder Michael Saylor posted on Saturday that "there are 110 things more dangerous to Bitcoin than spam." He argued that "BIP 110 turns a spam dispute into a consensus change that would invalidate some currently valid, fee-paying transactions," warning that establishing this precedent is the true threat. Blockstream co-founder Adam Back echoed this sentiment, telling proponents: "Bitcoin respectfully says no to what you want." He noted that dissenters are free to fork the network, but "bitcoin won't be joining it."
The collapse of BIP-110 underscores a broader reality for digital asset investors navigating a difficult market. The sector just recorded its third consecutive quarter of losses in Q2 2026, marking the longest losing streak since the 2022 bear market. Bitcoin ETFs suffered their largest quarterly outflows since launch as institutional capital rotated into artificial intelligence equities.
For market participants, the rejection of BIP-110 reinforces Bitcoin's structural resistance to contentious protocol changes. While the debate over block space utility and data spam is unlikely to disappear, the network's thousands of independent operators have opted to maintain the status quo rather than risk fracturing the consensus layer. This stability comes at the cost of leaving the underlying data-storage debate unresolved, but it signals to investors that altering Bitcoin's core financial rules requires a level of agreement that currently does not exist.
