Michael Saylor rejects BIP 110 as miner support collapses
- Michael Saylor killed BIP-110 momentum by framing soft forks as illegal property seizures.
- Miner signaling for BIP-110 collapsed below 2 percent, far short of the 55 percent hurdle.
- Critics compare lowering consensus thresholds to the contentious 2017 block size wars.
Michael Saylor shut down the latest attempt to re-engineer Bitcoin's consensus rules.
On Bitcoin And, the MicroStrategy chairman framed BIP-110 as an ideological attack on core property rights. Designed to filter non-financial data like Ordinals from the blockchain, the proposal sought to restrict block space strictly to peer-to-peer transactions. Saylor argued that altering consensus rules sets a dangerous precedent, turning Bitcoin’s constitutional stability into a playground for developer ideology.
The rhetorical pushback crushed developer momentum almost overnight. Support among mining pools plummeted below 2%, leaving the proposal stranded far below the 55% majority threshold required for activation.
Two days later on Simon Dixon Hard Talk, host Simon Dixon noted that the governance dispute reached beyond simple feature additions. Proponents of BIP-110, termed the Great Script Restoration, sought to lower the traditional 95% consensus requirement down to 55% by August. Lowering that bar created an explosive technical rift between mining pools and independent node operators.
The standoff mirrors the technical ideological battles that nearly fractured the network during the 2017 block size wars. When consensus mechanics are compromised, trust in base-layer stability dissolves rapidly.
The governance friction comes at a moment when external systems are already looking past Bitcoin's base layer for rapid deployment. On Bitcoin And, host David Bennett pointed out that new AI agent payment protocols like MoonPay’s Paybox chose Solana and EVM chains over Bitcoin and Lightning, favoring speculative liquidity over base-layer monetary security.
Hardware vulnerabilities have only heightened user anxiety over base-layer security. Simon Dixon highlighted a critical entropy flaw in Coldcard hardware wallets generated between 2021 and 2023, forcing users to roll physical dice to generate secure seed phrases.
For Bitcoin, preserving the base layer isn't an engineering choice. It's the entire value proposition.
Source Intelligence
- Deep dive into what was said in the episodes
The AI Sell-Off, Bitcoin Wallet Hacks & Global Realignment | Simon Dixon Hard Talk LIVE • Jul 31
- Citadel was a cornerstone investor in Ionic Digital, a new AI infrastructure stock that transitioned from Bitcoin mining and went live on NASDAQ, having previously been part of the Celsius bankruptcy payout.
- BIP 110, a Bitcoin improvement proposal, requires 55% mining consensus to activate, a reduction from the standard 95%. Signaling is expected around August 7th, with activation potentially in September.
- Simon Dixon cautions that some Cold Card hardware wallets, specifically those used to generate seed phrases between 2021 and 2023, had an entropy flaw leading to compromised funds.
Also from this episode: (5)
Fed (1)
- Allegations suggest Citadel used insider information regarding a Federal Reserve announcement to benefit from a subsequent AI stock market crash, buying up positions from a highly leveraged $25 billion hedge fund that was wiped out.
Markets (1)
- Simon Dixon asserts that high leverage in financial markets is a tool of the Financial Industrial Complex (FIC) to acquire assets during corrections, as evidenced by Citadel's actions after the AI stock sell-off.
AI Infrastructure (1)
- Simon Dixon suggests that AI infrastructure demand will be solid through 2030, but electricity allocation and GPU supply are critical choke points in the US, with new Texas regulations expected by August.
Middle East (1)
- Simon Dixon argues that the Middle East is undergoing a realignment, with the US footprint diminishing and the region increasingly aligning with China. Israel's role as a 'military-industrial complex (Mick) node' is changing.
Diplomacy (1)
- The Iran-Saudi normalization agreement, brokered by China in 2023, is crucial for regional stability, marking a strategic shift from the 'Forever War' model towards state-led political integration.
RABBIT HOLE RECAP #420: ACCELERATE • Jul 31
- Current Bitcoin network stats show a price of $64,760, a market cap of $1.3 trillion, and an average block time of 10 minutes and 16 seconds. The mempool currently has 86,317 transactions.
- Marty clarifies that Arthur Hayes's family office, Maelstrom, funds a Bitcoin grant program run by Jonathan Beer, while Farsight Insights is Beer's separate investment management company.
- BIP 110 activation is nine days away, with a monitoring dashboard (bip110.orange.surf) indicating a high likelihood of a chain split where BIP 110 nodes would form a minority chain.
- Strike has launched beneficiary planning for Bitcoin inheritance, a feature addressing the need for users with significant collateral balances to designate an heir for their funds.
- The Clarity Act now includes a provision safeguarding self-custody Bitcoin from abandoned property laws due to inactivity, establishing federal preemption over state laws.
- Ventium, a Bitcoin accelerator based in Brazil, announced new fellowship cycles, selecting 12 developers from 322 applications for its second cohort and funding two new grantees.
- Sparrow Wallet version 2.5.3 was released with Aera hardware wallet support, XDG directories, and PSBT verification; Marty warns users about scam mobile applications.
- Buzz, a Noster-based application, leverages cryptographically signed events to build private "company brains" and enables a "multiplayer harness" for agents to interact and share compute resources within trusted environments.
Also from this episode: (9)
BTC Markets (1)
- Marty argues that Bitcoin serves as the ultimate victor and safe haven in an economic environment where central banks actively devalue their national currencies.
Business (1)
- Marty and Matt discuss a fund manager named Leopold, dubbed "the boy wonder," who reportedly lost over $40 billion, possibly due to excessive leverage and a margin hunt by Wall Street firms.
Regulation (3)
- Secretary Scott Bessent strongly supports the Blockchain Regulatory Clarity Act, arguing it enhances compliance for digital asset intermediaries while codifying existing Treasury policy for non-custodial developers.
- Nigerian President Bola Tinubu established a Virtual Asset Council, chaired by the Central Bank, to regulate digital assets, which Marty views as an attempt to implement a surveillance and control regime.
- Colorado's new law, effective August 1st, mandates a restrictive process for purchasing semi-automatic firearms with detachable magazines, requiring multiple background checks, fees, classes, and an exam.
Open Source (2)
- NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, alongside Elon Musk, Microsoft, and Google, publicly supported open-weight, open-source AI models, highlighting a powerful industry alignment toward freedom in AI development.
- An open-source ESP32 LoRa mesh relay was introduced to bridge with BitChat, allowing users to extend the application's range through low-power, continuously running devices.
Models (2)
- Marty and Matt detail how OpenAI and Anthropic are reportedly "cannibalizing" customers by using their proprietary data to develop competing products, citing examples like Figma, Novo Nordisk, Microsoft, and Harvey.
- Marty advocates for unleashing open-weight AI models to audit and defend critical infrastructure, suggesting that a short-term rough patch would ultimately lead to stronger systems.
"Constitutional" Crisis | Bitcoin News • Jul 29
- Michael Saylor argues Bitcoin's code serves as its constitution, asserting that any changes to consensus rules, such as BIP-110, covenants, or larger blocks, constitute an attack on participants' economic rights.
- BIP-110, a proposal to restrict non-financial data like Ordinals from Bitcoin's blockchain for one year, has minimal miner support. Its mandatory signaling window opens around August 9 at block 961632, but current miner support is only 1.97%, far below the 55% needed.
- MoonPay launched Paybox, an AI payment vault that enables users to connect ChatGPT and Anthropic's Claude to make payments directly from conversations, subject to user approval via a passkey.
- Paybox combines crypto wallets and payment cards in a non-custodial vault, supporting transactions across blockchains and DeFi applications using the X402 agent payment standard. It currently supports Solana and EVM-compatible blockchains but excludes Bitcoin and Lightning Network.
- Bitcoin network fees per block are low at 0.02 Bitcoin, with approximately 86,000 unconfirmed transactions across 45 blocks. The network's hashrate is 872 exahashes per second, indicating robust processing power.
Also from this episode: (6)
Russia (1)
- Russian authorities have issued an international arrest warrant for Telegram founder Pavel Durov, accusing him of facilitating terrorist activities by allegedly failing to remove specific channels used by extremist groups.
Diplomacy (1)
- David Bennett questions the global response to Russia's warrant for Durov, noting Interpol's public database does not list him. He suggests a narrative-driven disregard for Russian notices, potentially compromising international safety by ignoring legitimate criminals.
Payments (1)
- Emirates airline now accepts Bitcoin payments for flights via crypto.com's payment feature, aligning with the preferences of a younger, digitally fluent generation. This option is currently limited to eligible UAE residents and bookings in Emirati Dirham.
BTC Markets (2)
- Three Bitcoin holders have sued Apple in California, claiming a counterfeit "Sparrow Wallet" app drained a combined $1.8 million in Bitcoin from their accounts. The lawsuit alleges Apple ranked the fraudulent app and included it in curated cryptocurrency sections.
- Precious metals generally declined, with silver at $57.23. Bitcoin's price is $63,990 per coin, holding a market capitalization of $1.28 trillion, with 20,062,657.39 coins in circulation.
Politics (1)
- Gabriel Perez, a former White House teleprompter operator, is no longer federally employed after being accused of using inside knowledge to profit over $100,000 from bets on Kalshi prediction markets related to Trump's speeches.