BIP-110 Fails and Solo Mining Wins: A Defining Week for Bitcoin

Recent events across the Bitcoin ecosystem underscored how consensus and competition continue to shape the network's evolution.

Summary:

BIP-110 has effectively failed after attracting less than 1% miner support ahead of its August activation deadline.
The proposal sought to limit non-financial data, including Ordinals and inscriptions, on the Bitcoin blockchain.
Separately, a hobby miner earned about 3.138 BTC after successfully mining a block with a low-power Bitaxe device.
These events underscore that Bitcoin’s evolution – whether technical or operational – is dictated by distributed network participation rather than central authority.

Bitcoin’s Rules and Mining Face a Defining Week

Two unrelated developments this week offered a timely reminder of how Bitcoin evolves: one proposal failed to win community support, while a hobby miner succeeded against overwhelming odds.

Although they involve different parts of the ecosystem, both events demonstrate that changes to Bitcoin ultimately depend on participation across the network rather than decisions made by any single individual or organization.

BIP-110 Nears Its End Without Meaningful Support

BIP-110, a proposal that would have introduced a temporary soft fork to restrict non-financial data such as Ordinals and inscriptions, has effectively failed to gain traction ahead of its planned early August activation date.

Support from miners has remained below 1% throughout the signaling period, leaving virtually no path toward adoption.

Bitcoin’s upgrade process differs from traditional software development because protocol changes require broad agreement among miners, node operators, developers and users. Without widespread adoption, a proposal cannot become part of the network’s consensus rules, regardless of how much attention it receives publicly.

The proposal also sparked one of the year’s most visible governance debates.

Supporters argued that limiting non-financial data would preserve block space for monetary transactions, while opponents warned that changing consensus rules to address perceived “spam” could establish a precedent for future censorship.

Among the critics were Michael Saylor and Adam Back, who argued that Bitcoin’s neutrality depends on allowing the protocol to validate transactions without judging their content.

With signaling effectively stalled, analysts widely expect BIP-110 to expire without affecting the Bitcoin network. Any attempt to activate the proposal independently would likely create only a minority chain rather than altering Bitcoin itself.

A Rare Solo Mining Success

While the governance debate faded, another event drew attention to Bitcoin’s mining network.

According to mempool.space, a hobby miner successfully validated block 957,382 using a single Bitaxe ASIC connected to Public Pool, earning approximately 3.1382 BTC, or about $200,000 based on current market prices. Following the 2024 halving, the standard block subsidy is 3.125 BTC. The extra amount (~0.013 BTC) likely comes from transaction fees included in that specific block.

The achievement stands out because the hardware is modest by industry standards.

The open-source Bitaxe delivers roughly 1 terahash per second (TH/s) while consuming only 15–21 watts of power. By comparison, industrial mining farms operate thousands of far more powerful ASIC machines with combined hashrates measured in exahashes.

The successful block was mined after roughly eight hours of operation.

Although statistically improbable, the event demonstrates that Bitcoin’s mining protocol continues to reward any participant capable of solving a valid block, regardless of operational scale.

Industrial Mining Still Dominates the Network

Rare solo successes should not be mistaken for changing mining economics.

Bitcoin’s mining industry remains heavily concentrated among large commercial operators that benefit from economies of scale, specialized infrastructure and access to low-cost electricity.

Network difficulty recently declined about 5% to 127.17 trillion, marginally improving mining conditions. Even after that adjustment, the probability of a 1 TH/s miner discovering a block remains extremely low.

Still, solo mining has become more active over the past year.

Industry data shows hobby miners validated 24 Bitcoin blocks during the previous twelve months, a 41% increase from a year earlier, collecting more than 75 BTC in total block rewards. The latest block represents the 12th successful solo-mined block recorded during 2026.

At the same time, many publicly traded mining companies continue expanding into AI and high-performance computing infrastructure as they seek new revenue sources beyond Bitcoin mining amid tighter margins.

Why Both Stories Matter

Although unrelated, the two developments highlight different aspects of Bitcoin’s design.

BIP-110 demonstrated that even widely discussed proposals cannot change the protocol without broad support from the network. The solo mining success showed that participation in Bitcoin remains open, even if the odds increasingly favor industrial operators.

For investors, both stories reinforce an important distinction. Bitcoin’s governance and mining are driven by different mechanisms – one through consensus, the other through proof-of-work – but neither depends on centralized control. That combination continues to shape how the network evolves and why changes, whether technical or economic, tend to occur gradually rather than through unilateral decisions.

The information presented in this article is intended for informational purposes only and should not be interpreted as financial, investment, or trading advice. Coinspress.com does not promote or advocate for any particular investment strategy, asset, or cryptocurrency project. Cryptocurrency markets are highly volatile and unpredictable – always perform your own research and seek guidance from a qualified financial professional before making any investment decisions.

Author

Alexander Stefanov

Reporter at CoinsPress

Alex is Editor-in-Chief of Coinspress and co-founder of Millennial Media Group, with nearly a decade of experience covering financial markets - crypto first, then everything else. It started in 2016 with Bitcoin. Like most people at the time, he didn't fully understand it - so he kept digging. Blockchain, tokenomics, the projects, the cycles. That curiosity never stopped, and eventually pulled him into traditional markets too: equities, commodities, macro. Not because he left crypto behind, but because you can't properly understand one without the other. What drives him is straightforward: he wants to know why something is happening, not just that it's happening. Most market coverage stops at the headline - price up, price down, here's a chart. Alex finds that kind of reporting actively unhelpful. If you walk away from an article without understanding the mechanism behind the move, what did you actually learn? He holds a degree in Tourism from New Bulgarian University - not the most obvious path into financial markets, but markets have a way of pulling in people who are simply too curious to stay out. He has authored over 200 in-depth analyses and more than 10,000 articles across crypto and traditional finance. He still thinks every day in markets teaches him something new. That's probably why he hasn't stopped.