Key Takeaways
- BIP-110 restarted after 23 days, switching from SHA-256d to Blake2b and mining 800+ blocks.
- Luke Dashjr’s BIP-110 fork cut blocks to 300 kB but remains absent from major crypto exchanges.
- BIP-110 expects new software Sept. 1 as Bitcoin supporters question whether its coin will gain value.
BIP-110 Minority Chain Comes Back to Life 23 Days After Bitcoin Split
It has been 23 days since the BIP-110 minority chain split that saw a minority chain created by a group of supporters who believe the Bitcoin blockchain should only be used for financial transactions. After the split, the minority BIP-110 chain stalled, and miners had a difficult time discovering blocks under the weight of the difficulty it adopted from the main Bitcoin chain. The chain split at block height 961632.
BIP-110 supporters managed to mine blocks up to 961639, and then, suddenly at block height 961640, the chain kicked into a higher gear. The block was mined by a pool or entity dubbed Silent Wave under the new Blake2b consensus rules while the chain is running. Dashjr is still calling this a rehearsal. Word on the street is the next software release is expected to drop tomorrow, on Sept. 1. At the time of writing, blockchain data shows that more than 800 minority chain blocks have been mined since then.
Dashjr Finally Gets His 300 kB Block Size Wish
In addition to the PoW shift, Dashjr and minority chain developers have reduced the block size to 300 kB. This is something Dashjr has wanted to do for a very long time with Bitcoin’s block size. Back in 2019, Bitcoin.com News reported on Dashjr and his requests to shrink the block size. This idea was first proposed in 2017 in a Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP). While many were fighting about whether Bitcoin’s 1 MB block size was too small, Dashjr has always insisted on shrinking it further.
According to the newly launched btc-blake2b.org and its FAQ page, Dashjr got his 300 kB block size wish. “While those limits are on, a block may also be no larger than about 300 kB (800,000 weight units),” the FAQ page explains. Funnily enough, the minority chain’s 300 kB block size change was predicted two weeks prior on X. The BIP-110 minority chain has been mocked a great deal on X as BTC supporters say they cannot take this “sh**coin” seriously.
BIP-110 Fork Finds No Love From Major Crypto Exchanges
The BIP-110 minority chain’s asset, the forked cryptocurrency, is not listed on any centralized exchanges. Major coin market price aggregators like Coingecko and Coinmarketcap do not showcase a ticker for this asset. Despite the lack of centralized crypto exchange support, the minority chain’s main figureheads insist it is no big deal.
“Let’s not use centralized KYC exchanges for the Blake chain, let’s just earn bitcoin by selling goods and services, and buy goods and services to spend our bitcoin,” BIP-110 minority chain developer Chris Guida wrote on X. “Screw fiat,” he added. On the other hand, Bitcoiners are laughing at minority chain supporters.
Bitcoiners Reject Blake2b Fork as Supporters Claim It Is Bitcoin
“Just In: The failed BIP 110 fork has officially relaunched and removed Bitcoin’s proof of work algorithm; it is now its own incompatible blockchain with its own cryptocurrency,” Bitcoin historian, Pete Rizzo, explained on the social media platform following the launch. Guida disagreed with Rizzo’s opinion and responded by saying, “Nah, the Blake chain is Bitcoin. Sha256 was never a defining feature of Bitcoin.”
While the new chain is now logging block production, the broader Bitcoin conversation treats the episode as settled, and Bitcoin-Blake2b is not Bitcoin. It is merely a fork and a community of crypto proponents that fail to recognize reality. Whether or not the so-called bitcoin-blake2b crypto asset gathers any price value in the future is anyone’s guess, but as of now, the odds look slim that it will be worth much of anything or worth people’s time.
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