The BIP-110 minority chain restarted this weekend after stalling for 23 days following its initial split at block height 961632. The chain has since mined over 800 blocks under new technical parameters implemented by developer Luke Dashjr and supporting contributors.
The fork introduced two significant technical changes: a shift in proof-of-work consensus from SHA-256d to Blake2b, and a reduction in block size to approximately 300 KB. The first block mined under the new Blake2b rules occurred at block height 961640 and was produced by an entity identified as Silent Wave. According to information published on btc-blake2b.org, the new block size limit is described as "about 300 kB (800,000 weight units)."
Dashjr has long advocated for reducing Bitcoin's block size. A 2017 Bitcoin Improvement Proposal first presented the concept, and the idea was revisited in 2019. The BIP-110 fork represents the first implementation of the reduced block size model.
The BIP-110 cryptocurrency is not listed on any major centralized exchanges, and price aggregators like CoinGecko and CoinMarketCap do not provide ticker information for the asset. BIP-110 developer Chris Guida commented on X that the lack of centralized exchange support is not a concern, advocating instead for peer-to-peer commerce outside traditional financial rails.
The broader Bitcoin community has treated the fork as a separate entity rather than Bitcoin itself. Bitcoin historian Pete Rizzo characterized the chain as "its own incompatible blockchain with its own cryptocurrency" due to the departure from SHA-256 proof-of-work. Guida disputed this classification, stating that the Blake2b algorithm was never a defining feature of Bitcoin.
Dashjr has described the current state as a rehearsal, with new software expected to be released on September 1.
