Bitcoin's rival BIP-110 chain has stalled after mining only two blocks since splitting off on Aug. 8, leaving it stuck under Bitcoin's full mining difficulty with almost none of its hashpower. Supporters are now debating whether to strip out the chain's mining algorithm entirely so it can survive without Bitcoin's existing miners.
Supporters of Bitcoin's stalled BIP-110 minority chain are weighing whether to replace its mining algorithm after the chain produced only two blocks since splitting off from Bitcoin. The chain split at block 961632 on Aug. 8, when nodes enforcing BIP-110 began rejecting blocks that did not signal support for the rule change. Mining group Roughnecks, using Ocean's DATUM system, mined blocks 961632 and 961633 before the chain went quiet.
Bitcoin's Difficulty Strands the Minority Chain
The chain inherited Bitcoin's roughly 127.48 trillion mining difficulty while attracting only a tiny fraction of Bitcoin's SHA-256d hashpower. Because the rules did not adjust difficulty downward when most miners stayed on the main Bitcoin chain, finding another block could take a long time unless more miners join or the chain's rules change. As a result, onchain data shows only an extremely small fraction of hashpower is currently trying to mine block 961634, the chain's next block.
'Fire the Miners' Idea Surfaces
On Aug. 9, pseudonymous BIP-110 author Dathon Ohm accused large mining pools of colluding to turn Bitcoin into what he called a toxic dumping ground for data and said supporters were working on a proof-of-work proposal, according to Bitcoin News: "to fire the miners". The idea would not alter Bitcoin's dominant chain; instead, it would give the minority chain a different mining algorithm so it could escape dependence on the SHA-256d mining industry that stayed with Bitcoin after the split.
Failed Signaling Push Drives the Debate
BIP-110 was authored by Ohm with input from Bitcoin developer and Bitcoin Knots maintainer Luke Dashjr, and it required 55% of miners to signal support before mandatory enforcement began. Support never came close, however: signaling stayed roughly between 2% and 2.6% before the split, so major mining pools kept producing Bitcoin blocks without adopting the change.
Dashjr Weighs a Different Algorithm
Inside the Bitcoin Knots Discord's #strategic channel, Dashjr and other supporters have discussed replacing SHA-256d with algorithms such as RandomX, KT256, BLAKE3 and Scrypt to keep the chain moving without relying on Bitcoin's existing miners. Dashjr said SHA-256d is also broken and pointed to ASICBoost when asked what he saw wrong with it. Rather than pick one algorithm now, he proposed assembling a short list of candidates and letting a deterministic random process choose, so that no miner would know the outcome in advance of everyone else.
As of this writing, Bitcoin Knots has not selected an algorithm, set an activation height, or committed to any proof-of-work change. Knots developer Chris Guida has rebased proof-of-work change code Dashjr originally wrote during Bitcoin's 2017 block-size conflict onto a recent Knots codebase, though the branch remains experimental and unactivated.
Source: Bitcoin News
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