The failed BIP-110 fork shows how difficult it would be to recreate Bitcoin (BTC) today, Giacomo Zucco of Plan B Network said.
Key Points:
- BIP-110 nodes split from Bitcoin and produced only a handful of blocks as the fork struggled to sustain itself.
- Zucco said a fair Bitcoin-style launch would be far harder today, while Luke Dashjr’s removal as a BIP editor could deepen centralization claims.
Bitcoin Fork Failure
Zucco said that BIP-110 became an “educational” example of the obstacles facing a new network today. The proposal, backed by longtime Bitcoin developer Dashjr, sought consensus changes to curb activity supporters considered spam.
Nodes running BIP-110 split from the main Bitcoin network over the weekend with only a small fraction of its hash power.
The breakaway chain stalled after two blocks before reaching four by the time of Zucco’s interview.
Dashjr also tried to keep the fork alive by changing its proof-of-work algorithm. Zucco said Dashjr planned to use a future Testnet4 block hash to choose among several algorithms, but participants generated extra testnet blocks to disrupt the selection and forced a restart.
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Giacomo Zucco Warning
Zucco said the episode showed how quickly a supposedly fair launch can depend on a small number of decision-makers. “So it became super centralized under him,” he said, arguing that modern incentives and deliberate disruption make Bitcoin’s early conditions difficult to reproduce.
He also said BIP-110 combined legitimate disputes over spam, Bitcoin Core governance and the roles of nodes and miners with a “moral panic” over claims that illegal on-chain material could create legal risks for node operators. That urgency, he argued, pushed a technical and economic dispute toward a fork.
The conflict continued after Dashjr was removed as a BIP editor following a vote by other Bitcoin developers.
Zucco opposed BIP-110 but called the removal “a wrong move at the wrong time,” saying it could reinforce claims among fork supporters that Bitcoin development had become centralized.
Zucco contrasted the failed fork with Bitcoin’s formative years, when the network developed with far less attention from markets, governments, speculators and people trying to disrupt the process.
He called that origin Bitcoin’s “immaculate conception” and said reproducing those conditions today would be “almost impossible.”
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