Adam Back and Michael Saylor Strongly Oppose BIP 110; Bitcoin Hard Fork Risk

Adam Back and Michael Saylor Strongly Oppose BIP 110; Bitcoin Hard Fork Risk
Blockstream founder Adam Back and Strategy founder Michael Saylor have publicly opposed Bitcoin Improvement Project 110, or BIP-110. The proposal, a temporary soft fork of the network, aims to limit transactions containing large amounts of data, such as ordinals. Opponents believe that implementing the plan without broad consensus could lead to the creation of a separate chain and a split in the Bitcoin network. The technical details of BIP-110 show that the plan intends to impose severe restrictions on data fields and some taproot features for a year.

The goal is to reduce the burden of data storage on the network and refocus Bitcoin on its monetary function. However, critics insist that the move conflicts with Bitcoin’s decentralized, permissionless nature and should not dictate how users use the block space. Adam Beck believes the plan is an attempt to police the transactions that other users choose to send. He warns that imposing rules without consensus would push supporters of the plan towards a minority chain. Michael Silver also described the move as a “very dangerous” practice that could reject currently valid transactions.