Michael Saylor's 110-Point Case Against BIP-110 Lands as Miner Support Sits Near Zero
Bitcoin's next fight isn't in Washington. It's on the network itself, and Michael Saylor just made the most detailed public case yet against the proposal at the center of it.
WHAT BIP-110 ACTUALLY CHANGES
BIP-110 is formally titled the "Reduced Data Temporary Softfork," listed in the BIPs repository under pseudonymous developer Dathon Ohm, and proposes a one-year temporary consensus change restricting arbitrary non-financial data embedded in Bitcoin transactions. In practice that means an 83-byte limit on OP_RETURN outputs, tighter caps on pushed payloads and witness items, and new restrictions on Taproot control blocks and the Taproot annex, all set to expire after roughly a year.
SAYLOR'S CASE AGAINST IT
Saylor's argument isn't really about spam. It's about precedent. He wrote that "the proposed cure is more dangerous than the condition," arguing that letting consensus rules judge the purpose of a valid, fee-paying transaction opens a door that doesn't close again. His closing line put it plainly: "What Bitcoin needs is not guardians of purity, but guardians of neutrality."
He isn't alone. Adam Bach has raised similar objections, framing the proposal as a dangerous consensus intervention rather than a technical fix.
THE NUMBERS DON'T SUPPORT ACTIVATION
BIP-110 needs 55 percent miner signaling to lock in early. The current signaling rate sits at about 0.86 percent, far short of the 55 percent needed for early lock-in, raising the possibility of a minority-chain split if support remains weak. No major mining pool has committed to signal for it.
WHAT HAPPENS IN AUGUST
Mandatory signaling opens around block 961,632, expected near August 7. From that point, nodes enforcing the rule begin rejecting blocks that don't signal support, with the restrictions taking effect for those nodes around September 1. If enough of the network refuses to go along while a minority enforces it anyway, the chain could split, and ordinary holders, not developers, would be the ones left sorting out which version of their coins counts.
The specific thing to watch is the signaling number itself. It sits under 1 percent today, and unless it moves sharply before the mandatory window opens, BIP-110 activates for a minority of nodes while the rest of the network simply ignores it.
This story comes from the Simply Bitcoin Live show. Watch the full episode.
