Bitcoin is once again staring down a contentious hard fork, with the BIP-110 proposal threatening to cleave the network over the legitimacy of ordinals and NFTs. As BTC struggles to reclaim the $60,000 level, the August activation date at block height 961,632 draws near, reviving memories of the summer of 2017 when Bitcoin Cash split from the main chain.
Backed by Bitcoin maximalists including Blockstream’s Adam Back, BIP-110 seeks to purge what it labels “spam” transactions — namely the ordinals, runes, and other inscribed data that still account for over 67% of Bitcoin’s traffic. Supporters argue that the network should be used solely as a payment system, dismissing all other on-chain data as harmful clutter. They point to past abuses of the OP_RETURN field and worry that even with the new change, alternative inscription methods would simply migrate elsewhere.
Despite the noise, on-chain metrics paint a complex picture. The Bitcoin network processes over 621,000 daily transactions, generating roughly $2.3 million in fees. Blocks remain over 91% full, yet the mempool is not congested, and low fees have even made on-chain blogging viable again. This durability has led many to view inscriptions as legitimate activity that supports miner revenue.
In practice, BIP-110 has drawn minimal signaling from nodes and miners, casting doubt on whether it can achieve consensus. If proponents proceed anyway, they could begin producing their own blocks at the activation height, creating a soft fork that would coexist — and potentially compete — with the ordinal-friendly chain. Users are warned that wallets like Bitcoin Knots could malfunction around the activation date, making funds temporarily unspendable. The most likely outcome is that the minority fork fizzles, but until the tension resolves, the community faces the risk of a messy split.
