BIP 110 Reaches “Complete” in Bitcoin’s Arbitrary-Data Fight

On June 25, 2026, BIP 110—the Reduced Data Temporary Softfork proposal associated with the dispute over arbitrary data in Bitcoin transactions—reached the BIP repository’s “Complete” status. The designation indicated that the authors considered the specification complete enough to stand as the proposal they intended to advocate. It did not mean that the proposal had activated, been deployed by Bitcoin Core, or gained network consensus.

That distinction matters because BIP status language can easily be mistaken for protocol status. BIP 110 proposed a consensus change intended to restrict certain forms of data use on Bitcoin for a temporary period. The proposal emerged from a broader conflict over transaction relay policy, inscriptions and arbitrary-data usage, node policy, and the proper boundaries between individual node discretion and consensus rules.

At the time of the June milestone, BIP 110 remained controversial and its ultimate fate was unknown. The June event therefore records a specification and governance stage rather than a successful soft fork. The BIP repository itself is the authoritative record of the proposal’s status and describes BIP 110 as a consensus soft-fork specification.

Later developments made the June milestone more historically important. In July, the dispute escalated into a more explicit governance and miner-support confrontation; in August, supporters attempted enforcement that produced a short-lived minority chain before stalling. Those later outcomes are retrospective context. They explain why the June `Complete` stage deserves preservation, but they must not be projected backward as though participants on June 25 already knew the proposal would reach that point.