Michael Saylor And Adam Back Push Back Against BIP-110 Ordinals Proposal

Strategy executive chairman Michael Saylor and Blockstream CEO Adam Back have renewed their criticism of BIP-110, a proposal aimed at limiting non-monetary transactions on the Bitcoin network. Introduced in December 2025, the plan targets Ordinals inscriptions and other arbitrary data that critics say clutter the blockchain and stray from Bitcoin’s core purpose as peer-to-peer digital cash.

Fear Of Unintended Consequences

Saylor argued that a fork carries greater risk to Bitcoin’s credibility than the spam it aims to fix, warning it could interfere with ordinary transactions on the network. Back described the proposal as an attempt to police how others use Bitcoin, arguing it conflicts with the network’s decentralized, permissionless design.

A Rare Protocol-Level Fight

The dispute is one of the most significant Bitcoin development debates since the Blocksize Wars between 2015 and 2017. BIP-110 was put forward by a developer known as Dathon Ohm with backing from Ocean protocol founder Luke Dashjr, who argues Ordinals-driven network bloat poses a serious long-term threat and says the proposal would not cause a lasting chain split since it includes a one-year limit.

Support Remains Extremely Low

For BIP-110 to activate, 55% of validating nodes would need to back it during a full block period. In the most recent period, only about 1% of blocks signaled support. The debate is also unfolding as Ordinals activity has dropped sharply, with daily inscriptions now under 10,000, down from more than 400,000 at their peak in August 2023.