David Schwartz Mocks Bitcoin (BTC) BIP-110 Forkers' “Legacy Chain Fix” Framing on X

Schwartz Clashes With BIP-110 Backers

Ripple CTO emeritus David Schwartz has publicly rejected the framing used by supporters of Bitcoin (BTC) improvement proposal BIP-110, telling one backer on X to “listen to yourself” after they described the breakaway effort as an attempt to fix the legacy chain. The exchange began when another user branded the planned BLAKE2b hard fork an “attack on BTC,” drawing parallels to the earlier Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin SV splits. BIP-110 supporter Loogart pushed back, asking why a voluntary fork should count as aggression: he argued that backers objected to Bitcoin Core's direction, were told to fork, chose a different proof-of-work model, and were somehow still accused of attacking. Schwartz replied that the group had crossed from participating in governance into attacking it the moment it refused to accept that it had lost. In a follow-up post, Schwartz zeroed in on the phrase “the attempt to fix the legacy chain,” arguing the wording itself presumes the existing chain is defective and that the departing group holds the authority to repair it. The spat is the sharpest public critique yet of the Knots-adjacent camp, and the latest flashpoint in Bitcoin governance debates.

a follow-up posthttps://x.com/JoelKatz/status/2094329534619472221

What BIP-110 Actually Specifies

The proposal at the center of the row is narrower than the fork narrative implies. The official bitcoin/bips repository lists BIP-110 as a “Reduced Data Temporary Softfork,” authored by Dathon Ohm, with a status of Closed and an assigned date of December 3, 2025. The text describes a one-year temporary deployment that caps scriptPubKey at 34 bytes, OP_RETURN outputs at 83 bytes and single data pushes at 256 bytes — rules aimed squarely at the non-financial payloads generated by Bitcoin Ordinals, BRC-20 tokens and Runes. The document contains no reference to changing the proof-of-work algorithm or to BLAKE2b. Its activation ceiling is recorded at block height 965,664, roughly September 1, 2026. On-chain records show BIP-110 nodes diverged from the main network at block 961,632; the minority chain produced two blocks in about eight hours before stalling and now trails the main chain by seven blocks. Debate on the developer mailing list opened on August 9, when contributor Jon Atack proposed moving the BIP to Closed after mining halted, and Murch noted the RDTS chain had found only two blocks. Contributor Greg Tonoski dissented, claiming the BIP did activate, with two bit 4 signaling blocks at height 961,633.

BLAKE2b Fork Targets September 1

The second attempt takes a different technical route. Backed by developer Luke Dashjr, the breakaway chain plans to replace Bitcoin's SHA-256d mining algorithm with BLAKE2b, a cryptographic hash function, so the new network no longer depends on the existing miner base. Its launch is scheduled for September 1, 2026. Infrastructure support has not followed: as of August 31, no major exchange, wallet provider or Lightning implementation has publicly committed to the new chain. Market data compiled on August 15 showed the stalled BIP-110 chain had mined only four blocks over seven days, with more than 400,000 transfers queued, no exchange support and no market price for its units. Security researchers have also flagged replay attack risk between the two networks, since wallets sharing pre-split transaction history could see a payment intended for one chain accepted on the other without explicit protections. Bitcoin Knots, the client most associated with the effort, lists version 29.4.knots20260508 as its latest release as of August 31, with no BLAKE2b functionality visible on its public page. So far, the fork's promoters have focused on consensus code while the economic plumbing — listings, custody, liquidity — remains unaddressed. Readers tracking the market in real time can follow live spot and futures prices on Binance.

Hashrate Will Decide the Split

In our reading, this dispute will be settled by block production and infrastructure, not rhetoric. The authoritative record is unambiguous: the BIP-110 proposal text itself, its Closed status, the 965,664 activation ceiling and the two-block minority chain at heights 961,632 and 961,633, with the developer mailing-list thread serving as the closest thing to a recorded governance vote. Whether the BLAKE2b chain attracts sustained hashrate after its September 1 launch, and whether any exchange or wallet accepts its units, will determine its relevance. Bitcoin's mainnet consensus rules remain unchanged; treat the split as a technical sideshow until infrastructure commitments appear.