Bitcoin
Adam Back Rejects Viral Claims Bitcoin Will "Fire the Miners" Over BIP-110
28 Aug 2026, 14:30
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Confusion over a proposal limiting how much non-financial data can be stored on Bitcoin sparked viral claims about miners being cut out, which Blockstream's CEO says are overblown.
<p>Blockstream CEO Adam Back has publicly pushed back on viral claims circulating this month that the Bitcoin network is set to "fire the miners," calling the characterization a significant overstatement of a much narrower technical debate playing out among developers.</p>
<p>The confusion traces back to BIP-110, a Bitcoin Improvement Proposal aimed at limiting how much non-financial data -- such as image or text data embedded via inscriptions -- can be stored directly on the Bitcoin blockchain. Proponents argue that large volumes of non-financial data clutter block space that would otherwise go to financial transactions, potentially raising fees for ordinary users and straining node operators who must store and relay that data indefinitely. Critics counter that miners are free to include whatever transactions they choose, and that BIP-110 amounts to a values judgment about what Bitcoin's block space should be used for, layered on top of a technical proposal.</p>
<p>The debate carries a deadline this month, which appears to have fueled the viral misreadings. In reality, adopting BIP-110 would not "fire" miners in any literal sense -- miners would continue producing blocks and earning transaction fees and block subsidies exactly as before. What would change, if the proposal gains sufficient support, is the type of data node software defaults to relaying and storing, a policy-layer change rather than a change to consensus rules governing mining itself.</p>
<p>Back's intervention highlights just how few miners and node operators currently support BIP-110 in its current form, according to his own assessment, suggesting the proposal is unlikely to move forward as written even setting aside the viral misunderstanding of what it would actually do. Bitcoin's governance process relies on rough consensus among developers, miners, and node operators rather than a formal voting mechanism, meaning proposals without broad support typically stall rather than advancing through contentious splits.</p>
<p>The episode is a familiar pattern in Bitcoin's development culture, where technical debates over block space policy -- often involving genuinely difficult tradeoffs between minimizing blockchain bloat and preserving permissionless use of the network -- periodically get flattened into simplified, alarmist narratives once they reach a broader audience outside the developer community actually working through the proposal's details.</p>
<p>For now, Bitcoin's underlying mining economics and block reward structure remain entirely unchanged. Whatever the eventual fate of BIP-110, the notion that miners face being cut out of the network altogether has no basis in what the proposal actually contains, according to Back and other developers who have weighed in on the debate.</p>
<p>The confusion traces back to BIP-110, a Bitcoin Improvement Proposal aimed at limiting how much non-financial data -- such as image or text data embedded via inscriptions -- can be stored directly on the Bitcoin blockchain. Proponents argue that large volumes of non-financial data clutter block space that would otherwise go to financial transactions, potentially raising fees for ordinary users and straining node operators who must store and relay that data indefinitely. Critics counter that miners are free to include whatever transactions they choose, and that BIP-110 amounts to a values judgment about what Bitcoin's block space should be used for, layered on top of a technical proposal.</p>
<p>The debate carries a deadline this month, which appears to have fueled the viral misreadings. In reality, adopting BIP-110 would not "fire" miners in any literal sense -- miners would continue producing blocks and earning transaction fees and block subsidies exactly as before. What would change, if the proposal gains sufficient support, is the type of data node software defaults to relaying and storing, a policy-layer change rather than a change to consensus rules governing mining itself.</p>
<p>Back's intervention highlights just how few miners and node operators currently support BIP-110 in its current form, according to his own assessment, suggesting the proposal is unlikely to move forward as written even setting aside the viral misunderstanding of what it would actually do. Bitcoin's governance process relies on rough consensus among developers, miners, and node operators rather than a formal voting mechanism, meaning proposals without broad support typically stall rather than advancing through contentious splits.</p>
<p>The episode is a familiar pattern in Bitcoin's development culture, where technical debates over block space policy -- often involving genuinely difficult tradeoffs between minimizing blockchain bloat and preserving permissionless use of the network -- periodically get flattened into simplified, alarmist narratives once they reach a broader audience outside the developer community actually working through the proposal's details.</p>
<p>For now, Bitcoin's underlying mining economics and block reward structure remain entirely unchanged. Whatever the eventual fate of BIP-110, the notion that miners face being cut out of the network altogether has no basis in what the proposal actually contains, according to Back and other developers who have weighed in on the debate.</p>