Blockstream CEO Adam Back on July 18 poured cold water on the BIP-110 soft fork proposal, calling it a doomed attempt that will collapse like a 'Pompeii chain.' In a series of posts on X, Back mocked supporters for failing to fund a cypherpunk summer celebration and rejected the idea that Satoshi Nakamoto would back the proposal. The exchange comes as BIP-110 approaches a critical signaling deadline, with miner support sitting at just 0.86% — far below the 55% threshold needed for lock-in.
Back's blunt dismissal
Back didn't mince words. He said 'Satoshi was not retarded' and denied being Nakamoto himself. When a user argued that Nakamoto would still back BIP-110 if alive, Back rejected the premise and questioned whether Nakamoto is even dead, calling it pure speculation. He also predicted the fork attempt would collapse within weeks of the signaling deadline.
What BIP-110 would do
BIP-110 would temporarily cap the size of arbitrary data miners can embed in Bitcoin transactions. The target: Ordinals-style inscriptions that have clogged blocks with non-financial data. But the proposal is contested — and Back's dismissal suggests it lacks the ideological or technical backing to succeed.
Miner support and the fork timeline
Right now, only 0.86% of blocks in the current difficulty period signal support for BIP-110. That's a long way from 55%. Mandatory signaling begins around block 961,632 — roughly three weeks from today, with the chain tip near block 958,529. Back predicted the first mandatory signaling block would trigger an automatic split. Bitcoin nodes follow the chain with the most cumulative work, so miners would have little reason to continue on a minority fork.
Bitcoin traded near $63,944 on July 18, up 1.43% in 24 hours. The market hasn't reacted much — the fork's chances look slim.
