Michael Saylor, executive chairman of Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), has come out swinging against Bitcoin's BIP-110 proposal with a 110-point case. The proposal would impose a one-year temporary soft fork restricting certain arbitrary-data and script uses at the consensus level. As of July 20, miner signaling sits at just 0.89% — 11 out of 1,236 blocks — far below the 55% threshold needed for early lock-in.
Saylor's 110-point case
Saylor argues the proposal is more dangerous than the problem it aims to fix. Invalidating currently valid, fee-paying transactions sets a dangerous precedent, he warns, and could lead to a chain split. The temporary rules would last 52,416 blocks (about a year) after activation, exempting transactions that spend UTXOs created before the fork. But Saylor's core objection is the precedent: a mandatory-signaling path that rejects transactions that are valid today.
Miner signaling and the clock
The current difficulty period, ending around block 959,615, cannot reach the early-lock threshold. The next period — blocks 959,616 through 961,631 — is the final chance for early lock-in, requiring 1,109 signaling blocks (roughly 55%). If that period fails, a forced signaling window will run from approximately August 8 to August 22, 2026, with forced lock-in at block 963,648 and activation around block 965,664 — roughly September 5.
The chain-split risk
Exchanges, wallet developers, and node operators face an August deadline to decide whether to support BIP-110 or risk a chain split. Without broad mining pool support, Bitcoin could split into competing histories, forcing businesses to choose which chain to follow. There's also a concern, reported by Jameson Lopp, that a sudden wave of BIP-110 signaling nodes may be artificial, inflating visible support. That makes the already low signaling numbers even harder to read.
What happens next
The next difficulty period is the last chance for miners to lock in BIP-110 early. If they don't, the forced window kicks in August 8, with activation expected around September 5. The question hanging over the network: will enough miners signal to avoid a split, or will the proposal's mandatory path push Bitcoin into uncharted territory?
