The offshoot chain inherited Bitcoin’s current mining difficulty despite controlling only a small portion of the network’s hashpower. This imbalance has caused blocks to be mined hours apart, even as both chains continue to process identical transactions.
The minority chain, created when BIP-110 समर्थकों split from Bitcoin on Saturday, has produced just two blocks in about eight hours since launch. There is little evidence so far that miners are willing to continue supporting it.
As of around 6 a.m. UTC, the new chain had reached block 961,633, while the main Bitcoin network stood at block 961,681, according to the BIP-110 tracker. The split occurred at block 961,632, when nodes running BIP-110 software began rejecting any blocks that failed to signal support for the proposal.
Each Bitcoin block typically contains a batch of transactions and is added roughly every ten minutes. A gap of 48 blocks therefore represents nearly a full day of activity on the main chain, compared to minimal progress on the fork.
BIP-110, or Bitcoin Improvement Proposal 110, seeks to temporarily block the use of Bitcoin transactions for storing non-financial data—such as images or text—for a year. Supporters argue that such uses congest the network and increase costs for users making legitimate payments.
Opponents counter that anyone who pays transaction fees has the right to use block space as they wish, and that miners or node operators should not decide what constitutes a valid transaction.
AntPool mined the first block that did not signal support for BIP-110, which was accepted by the main network but rejected by BIP-110 nodes. In contrast, a miner using Ocean produced the alternative block that the forked chain accepted. (Miners are entities that use large-scale computing power to secure the network and process transactions, earning newly issued bitcoin and fees in return.)
Both AntPool and Ocean operate as mining pools, allowing multiple participants to combine computing resources and share rewards.
The slowdown is largely due to a structural constraint. Bitcoin recalibrates its mining difficulty every 2,016 blocks to maintain an average block time of about ten minutes.
Because the fork retained this difficulty level but has far less hashpower, its block production has slowed dramatically. It cannot reduce difficulty until it mines 2,016 blocks, which could take roughly 350 days at the current pace—compared to around 14 days on the main chain.
Support for BIP-110 has been minimal. Over the past two weeks, only 2.53% of blocks signaled support, well below the 55% threshold needed to activate the proposal without causing a split.
This situation creates challenges for trading the forked asset. Since both chains still accept identical transactions, a transaction on the fork can also be broadcast on the Bitcoin network, potentially allowing a buyer to claim real BTC from the same transaction—introducing the risk of a new attack vector.
Additionally, the slow pace of block production on the fork means transactions take much longer to confirm, making it less practical for trading.
BIP-110 nodes will continue requiring all blocks to signal support until block 963,647. However, at the current rate, the forked chain is unlikely to reach that level within the two-week window.
