Michael Saylor calls BIP-110 Bitcoin’s largest self-inflicted risk

Strategy co-founder Michael Saylor believes that Bitcoin (BTC) has gained absolute dominance in the global “media war.” However, he also warns that changes at the protocol level—especially the proposed BIP-110—could become the biggest remaining risk to this network.

At the same time, David Bailey, the organizer of the Bitcoin Conference, has proactively invited the parties supporting BIP-110 to engage in dialogue, thereby raising the heat of a debate that is splitting the Bitcoin community into two opposing camps.

In essence, BIP-110 proposes changing the mechanism for selecting new blocks by allowing miners to vote on which blocks are valid, rather than relying entirely on the “longest chain” rule. This approach is intended to increase flexibility in the consensus mechanism while improving resistance to certain types of exploitation attacks.

Why BIP-110 has become the current focal point

According to Saylor, BTC’s growth momentum has clearly shifted to institutional capital flows, rather than depending on the traditional halving cycle. He argues that the four-year cycle is no longer effective, and in the period ahead, factors such as digital credit and bank lending activity will play a leading role.

Even so, the most notable highlight in his view lies in the warning about risk from protocol development. Saylor says that “wrong ideas can lead to iatrogenic changes”—meaning interventions that unintentionally cause harm—are the most serious threat to Bitcoin.

This assessment directly relates to BIP-110—proposed by Dathon Ohm and backed by Bitcoin Knots. The proposal targets a temporary soft fork within one year to limit non-monetary data on the network.

Specifically, BIP-110 focuses on Ordinals records, BRC-20 tokens, and large OP_RETURN payloads—factors believed to bloat the blockchain and increase the burden on running nodes.

The Bitcoin community is deeply fractured

The first sign of support for BIP-110 appeared in March 2026, when the Ocean mining pool mined the corresponding blocks.

Supporters view this as a necessary step to protect Bitcoin’s essence as an optimal monetary system. They argue that data that does not serve payment purposes competes for block resources, pushing transaction fees higher and degrading the experience of ordinary users.

By contrast, the opposing side regards this proposal as a dangerous precedent. Adam Back, CEO of Blockstream, warned that intervening at the consensus layer could erode trust in Bitcoin as a store of value asset, while also paving the way for the risk of transaction censorship in the future.

Another contentious point is the activation threshold. BIP-110 proposes a 55% hash power consensus level—significantly lower than the 95% capital threshold regarded as the “gold standard” in earlier Bitcoin upgrades.

Bailey himself—CEO and Chairman of Nakamoto, and the founder of BTC Inc.—also admitted that he had publicly criticized the supporters of BIP-110. However, some in the community believe that his recent reconciliation move is more about communications than genuine goodwill.

Against that backdrop, the Bitcoin 2026 Conference together with the Federal Reserve meeting at the end of April are seen as important catalysts that could strongly influence the course of events for BTC.

At present, signaling for BIP-110 is still ongoing, with the possibility of reaching a decision to activate it by the end of 2026.

In short, this is not only a technical proposal, but a foundational test: whether Bitcoin will continue to play the role of a minimalist monetary system, or move toward expanding the space for on-chain experimentation—with the trade-offs that come with it.