Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP-110), the contentious Bitcoin [BTC] soft fork, is back in the news, and many industry experts are talking about it.
This time, Blockstream CEO Adam Back contended that misconceptions about Bitcoin’s architecture are fueling discussions over BIP 110 and the OP_RETURN policy. Acknowledging many BIP 110 proponents as well-intentioned newcomers, he added,
If these are the people with #110 in their handles, I’m sad to see them about to fork off and get disillusioned without understanding why bitcoin rejected 110 robustly.
For background, BIP-110 was implemented in December 2025. This was done to prevent arbitrary data, such as Ordinals inscriptions, which resemble non-fungible tokens, from spamming the network and to maintain Bitcoin’s primary function as a peer-to-peer cash system.
Back acknowledges that spam is a genuine issue. However, he argues that Bitcoin already addresses it through market‐driven mechanisms. This includes things like transaction fees, miner incentives, and decentralized consensus, rather than restrictive rules.
Does BIP‐110 clash with Bitcoin ethos?
The CEO further argued that BIP 110 also goes against the permissionless nature of Bitcoin. He concluded that anyone who disagrees with its direction can fork the network and impose their own regulations.
Moreover, he contends that a fork based on BIP 110 is unlikely to be successful. This, he believes, would happen due to the lack of widespread community support and the fact that it goes against the fundamental ideas of Bitcoin.
He added,
It would be sad if bitcoin lost people disillusioned due to simple lack of understanding of what’s going on there, we’re all trying to defend bitcoin and keep it on mission.
Echoing similar sentiments, Strategy’s Michael Saylor said,
Market dynamics raise further concerns
This criticism came after only 10 blocks out of 2,016 supported the temporary upgrade on the 4th of July.
Adding further pressure, Ordinals activity has dropped to all‐time lows. For the past month, fewer than 10,000 Ordinals have been added to the Bitcoin blockchain each day.
Finally, Bitcoin’s price has fallen 45% over the past year, from its peak of $124,500 to $63,901.24 at press time.
Final Summary
- Adam Back criticizes BIP-110 in light of false beliefs about the architecture of Bitcoin rather than malicious intent.
- Saylor stands supporting Back’s argument as even Ordinals activity falls to its all-time lows.
