Twenty-three days after the BIP-110 minority chain split from Bitcoin, block production has started again. The fork stalled after the split at block height 961632. Miners had trouble finding blocks because the chain kept the difficulty from the main Bitcoin chain. That made blocks slow and painful to produce. The minority chain only managed to reach block 961639 before grinding to a halt.
Then, at block 961640, things changed. A miner called Silent Wave found a block under a new set of consensus rules. The chain now uses the Blake2b proof-of-work algorithm instead of SHA-256. Since then, more than 800 blocks have been mined on the minority chain. Bitcoin developer Luke Dashjr still describes the effort as a rehearsal. The next software release was expected on Sept. 1.
Smaller Blocks and a New Proof-of-Work
The block size change is also notable. The minority chain has reduced its block size to 300 kB. This is something Dashjr has pushed for over the years. In 2019, Bitcoin.com News covered his calls to shrink Bitcoin’s block size. The idea was first proposed in a Bitcoin Improvement Proposal back in 2017. While much of the debate around Bitcoin focused on whether 1 MB was too small, Dashjr wanted the opposite.
According to the FAQ on btc-blake2b.org, blocks on the new chain cannot be larger than about 300 kB, or 800,000 weight units. Interestingly, the change to 300 kB was predicted on X two weeks before it happened. The fork has been mocked by Bitcoin supporters, who say they cannot take this “sh**coin” seriously.
Exchange Support Missing but Supporters Push On
The forked coin is not listed on any major centralized exchange. CoinGecko and CoinMarketCap do not show a ticker for it. That has not stopped the main figures behind the fork. Developer Chris Guida suggested supporters avoid centralized KYC exchanges and instead earn bitcoin by selling goods and services. He also said “Screw fiat.” Bitcoiners are not impressed.
Bitcoin historian Pete Rizzo said the failed BIP-110 fork had relaunched and removed Bitcoin’s proof-of-work algorithm, making it an incompatible blockchain with its own cryptocurrency. Guida rejected that view. He said the Blake chain is Bitcoin and that SHA-256 was never a defining feature of Bitcoin.
The new chain is producing blocks, but the wider Bitcoin conversation treats this as settled: Bitcoin-Blake2b is not Bitcoin. It is a fork. Whether the asset will gain any value is unclear. Right now, the odds do not look good.
