U.S. miner rejects BIP-110 despite pool support

A bitcoin miner operating in the U.S. refused to signal support for BIP-110 over the weekend, even though the pool it uses voted in favor of the proposal.

BIP-110 is a soft fork aimed at adjusting transaction relay rules and could set a precedent for how miners handle protocol changes down the line. Miners usually follow the majority vote of the pools they join, so this miner’s stance goes against the grain and highlights tensions over governance in the bitcoin network.

The miner’s pool, Foundry USA, signaled readiness for BIP-110 with over 90% support during the activation window. But the miner itself chose not to include the signaling bit in its blocks, effectively rejecting the change. This is unusual because most miners align with their pool’s voting record to avoid splitting rewards or causing unnecessary chain splits.

What happens next could show whether miners feel free to break from pool decisions without penalty. If more miners do the same, it could slow down soft fork rollouts or force the community to rethink how upgrades are coordinated. Bitcoin’s governance has always been informal, so this small act of defiance might ripple beyond just one proposal.