BIP-110 Fork Stalled After Four Blocks, Plans Blake2b Swap

The BIP-110 fork split from Bitcoin at block 961632 on Aug. 8 and has produced four blocks through Aug. 12, leaving more than 400,000 transfers unconfirmed and no exchange listings for the forked token. Supporters plan to replace the chain’s SHA-256 proof-of-work with Blake2b in September to lower mining difficulty requirements.

Proponents of the fork include developers associated with the Knot/BIP-110 effort and individuals such as Luke Dashjr and an Ocean co-founder. A small pool called Roughnecks mined the first handful of blocks and advanced the chain to block 961635 before mining activity stalled after Aug. 12.

The minority chain retained Bitcoin’s SHA-256 difficulty, which requires substantially more hashpower than the small mining community can supply. Block production on the fork has been minimal, and the backlog of unconfirmed transfers has continued to grow while there is no visible market price for the forked asset.

Under current rules, coins mined on the forked chain cannot be spent until they reach 100 confirmations. The fork also lacks replay protection, and some users have accidentally broadcast transactions that affect both chains when they intended to move funds only on the main Bitcoin network.

Backers plan to change the fork’s PoW function from double SHA-256 to Blake2b, a 64-bit-optimized variant from the Blake family that is used by a small number of proof-of-work chains, including Siacoin. The change is intended to allow mining with different hardware and software by lowering the effective hashpower barrier created by SHA-256 difficulty settings.

Implementing Blake2b requires software and infrastructure work. Node clients must validate modified block headers and apply the new PoW check. Mining software, Stratum servers and pool software must generate and distribute Blake2b work. Wallets, explorers and indexers need updates to parse altered headers and recognize the forked tokens. Miners must obtain compatible hardware or optimized hashing software.

The fork currently has no exchange listings, so there is no public price or liquid market for the asset. Developers reportedly selected Blake2b from a randomized shortlist of candidate functions and have sketched a roadmap for the transition. The immediate technical milestones are deploying Blake2b-compatible clients to reset difficulty and implementing replay protection so transactions on one chain do not execute on the other. Exchanges and infrastructure providers would need to adopt updates before the forked token could gain tradable liquidity.