Only two blocks mined in eight hours, why did BIP-110 fail to purify Bitcoin?
- On August 7, Bitcoin split into two chains at block height 961632 due to nodes running BIP-110 rejecting non-supporting blocks.
- The minority chain, following BIP-110, only managed to produce two blocks in eight hours, while the main chain progressed to block 961681.
- BIP-110 aimed to restrict non-financial data storage in Bitcoin blocks but failed to gain sufficient support, with only 2.53% of blocks signaling for it.
- The minority chain's slow progress was due to its low hashrate and the high difficulty inherited from the main chain.
- Replay attack risks exist for users dealing with forked coins, as transactions can be valid on both chains.
On the evening of August 7, Bitcoin split into two chains at block height 961632. Nodes running BIP-110 software began rejecting all blocks that did not signal support, diverging from the mainnet. AntPool mined the first standard block at that height; the mainnet accepted it, but BIP-110 nodes rejected it. Then a miner working through the Ocean pool mined an alternative block, and the BIP-110 chain followed that block.
Eight hours later, the minority chain had only progressed to block 961633, producing a total of two blocks. In the same period, the Bitcoin main chain had reached block 961681, leading by 48 blocks. This fork, lasting less than a day, has been declared technically a failure.
BIP-110 aimed to use consensus rules to temporarily restrict non-financial data storage in Bitcoin blocks for about one year. However, it only garnered 2.53% of blocks signaling support, far below the 55% required for activation. This low level of support resulted in the minority chain's inability to progress effectively, as it inherited the main chain's full difficulty setting but had only a tiny amount of hashrate.
The failure of the minority chain does not eliminate risks for users, as both chains accept signed transactions in the same format, creating a potential for replay attacks. Without built-in replay protection in BIP-110, transactions involving forked coins carry the risk of inadvertently losing main chain BTC.
为什么BIP-110未能净化比特币，导致八小时内仅挖出两个区块？
8月7日晚上，比特币在区块高度961632分裂为两个链。运行BIP-110软件的节点开始拒绝所有不支持的区块，与主链发生分歧。AntPool在该高度挖出了第一个标准区块；主链接受了它，但BIP-110节点拒绝了它。随后，通过Ocean矿池工作的矿工挖出了一个替代区块，BIP-110链跟随了该区块。
八小时后，次要链仅进展到961633区块，总共挖出了两个区块。在同一时期，比特币主链已达到961681区块，领先48个区块。这次分叉持续不到一天，已被宣布为技术上的失败。
BIP-110旨在利用共识规则暂时限制比特币区块中的非金融数据存储，持续约一年。然而，它仅获得了2.53%的区块表示支持，远低于激活所需的55%。这种低支持水平导致次要链无法有效进展，因为它继承了主链的全部难度设置，但只有极少的哈希率。
次要链的失败并未消除用户的风险，因为两个链都以相同格式接受签名交易，造成重放攻击的潜在可能性。在BIP-110中没有内置重放保护的情况下，涉及分叉币的交易存在无意中失去主链BTC的风险。