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Key Takeaways
- Luke Dashjr took an Ocean sabbatical as BIP-110’s fork remained stalled after 2 blocks.
- BIP-110 developers listed 6 PoW candidates as they prepare a minority-chain hard fork.
- Bitcoin Knots developers assigned 3 core workstreams as the fork targets a PoW reset.
“I am taking a sabbatical from OCEAN as Chairman and CTO and will turn my immediate focus to working on Bitcoin and open-source projects to support Bitcoin. I believe this is the best use of my time and is in the best interests of Bitcoin and Bitcoin’s long-term health,” Dashjr wrote on X on Monday evening.
Bitcoin Mechanic, Ocean’s head of communications, replied “Me too!”, indicating he is also taking a sabbatical. Both described their moves as temporary leaves rather than permanent resignations.
Dashjr Steps Back From the Mining Pool He Helped Build
The timing puts Dashjr outside Ocean’s day-to-day leadership while a technical fight he has championed moves into a much more consequential phase. Ocean was launched in November 2023 by Mummolin Inc., co-founded by Dashjr, Mark Artymko, and Ian Northon. A $6.2 million seed round led by Twitter founder and Block CEO Jack Dorsey helped finance the mining pool, which was built around non-custodial payouts and giving individual miners greater control over block construction.
Ocean has remained small compared with dominant bitcoin pools such as Foundry USA and Antpool, but its DATUM system had become an important piece of the BIP-110 saga. DATUM lets participating miners construct their own block templates rather than simply accepting templates produced by a centralized pool operator. Roughnecks used Ocean’s DATUM system to mine the first two BIP-110 minority-chain blocks after the split at block 961632. The fork then effectively ground to a halt under Bitcoin’s inherited 127.48 trillion mining difficulty and its tiny share of SHA-256d hashpower.
BIP-110 Developers Move From Debate to a Hard-Fork Roadmap
Now the discussion has moved beyond whether the minority chain should abandon Bitcoin’s SHA-256d proof-of-work algorithm. During an Aug. 10 Bitcoin Knots development meeting, participants began assigning specific pieces of a proposed hard fork. The working plan places Dashjr on the block header and PoW changes, an individual named Kyle on replay protection, and software developer Chris Guida on adapting the Reduced Data Temporary Softfork, or RDTS. A new DATUM Gateway and server would also be required.
The minority chain revival’s scope is significant. Developers classified a redesigned block header, a deliberately oversized difficulty reset, and replay protection as essential work. Other ideas tossed around Discord discussions include a larger nonce space for miners, a 64-bit block timestamp, a possible block-withholding fix, and a temporary reduction in block size to 600 kiloweight units during RDTS. Fixes for timewarp and timejacking attacks were also discussed, though several changes remain optional and could be dropped.
Replay protection matters because the BIP-110 network shares transaction history with Bitcoin. Without sufficient protection, BTC transactions intended for the Bitcoin blockchain can potentially be valid on the BIP-110 minority chain under certain circumstances. The developers specifically discussed changes around transaction signatures, while the broader redesign would adapt the block header to whichever new mining algorithm is ultimately selected.
Developers Plan a Surprise PoW Selection
The most striking part of the plan is how developers intend to select the new proof-of-work (PoW) algorithm. Instead of publicly choosing one in advance, Dashjr described a commit-reveal process intended to prevent miners and hardware manufacturers from preparing for the winning algorithm before everyone else.
A draft candidate list discussed during the meeting included BLAKE2b-256, SHA3x, BLAKE2s, Scrypt, BLAKE3x2 and Eaglesong. Dashjr explained that the group planned to publish a cryptographic hash of the secret mapping first, then use a Bitcoin block produced after 14:00 UTC the following day to determine the selection. Publishing the hash beforehand would allow observers to later verify that developers had not changed the mapping after seeing the block.
“Current plan is later today we announce with blockhash-to-algo mapping HASH, tomorrow 14:00 UTC we publish mapping as soon as there’s a corecoin block to compare to it,” Dashjr told the development channel on Discord. When Guida asked whether the most recent block before 14:00 UTC would determine the algorithm, Dashjr clarified that it would be the next block afterward.
The Stalled Chain Is Driving the Rush
Difficulty is another priority because developers have already seen what happens when a minority fork inherits mining conditions designed for Bitcoin’s enormous industrial hashpower.
Kyle told Discord participants that avoiding another stalled chain was probably the “highest priority,” while another participant proposed a faster difficulty adjustment so an incorrect starting estimate or rapidly changing hashpower could correct within hours rather than waiting through Bitcoin’s normal 2,016-block adjustment period.
A Fork Fighting Over Which Chain Is Bitcoin
Dashjr continues to reject the premise that his side is abandoning Bitcoin. In his own framing, the dominant chain is the contentious fork. “It is in fact a contentious hardfork attempt. Are you just going to give in? Or stay on Bitcoin and fight?” Dashjr wrote on the social media platform X while comparing the dispute with previous battles involving Segwit2X and Bitcoin Cash.
That conviction now collides with the measurable state of the networks. The overwhelmingly dominant Bitcoin chain continues producing blocks under SHA-256d, while the BIP-110 branch has struggled to produce a third block. Inside the Knots development discussion, even participants sympathetic to the project recognized the optics and technical stakes. One warned that expanding the redesign too far could change the story from choosing a new algorithm to:
“They made a bunch of changes and think they’re Bitcoin.”
What happens next could determine whether BIP-110 remains a stranded two-block minority fork or becomes a substantially different network. Developers are no longer merely discussing a hypothetical escape from Bitcoin’s miners. They are dividing up consensus work, designing replay protection, preparing a difficulty reset, and working toward a method for selecting a new PoW algorithm.
Bitcoiners Dismiss Dashjr’s Statements
The broader Bitcoin community has largely rejected Dashjr’s and the BIP-110 community’s framing. Across X and other public forums, critics have mocked and ridiculed the stranded fork with labels such as “Lukecoin” and “Knotcoin,” arguing that declaring a minority chain “Bitcoin” does not overcome the economic and PoW reality. The dominant chain continued producing blocks with the overwhelming majority of SHA-256d hashpower, while the BIP-110 branch managed only two blocks before grinding to a crawl.
To BIP-110 critics, the episode demonstrated that nodes can enforce whatever rules their operators choose, but doing so does not compel users, miners, exchanges, businesses, or the broader market to follow them.
