Foundry Digital, which operates the world's largest Bitcoin mining pool, has opened hashrate-weighted voting to its mining clients on Bitcoin Improvement Proposal 110 (BIP-110). The decision represents a significant moment in Bitcoin governance and highlights the evolving role miners play in protocol development decisions.
Hashrate-Weighted Voting Process
The Rochester-based mining pool operator announced Friday that miners can vote for or against BIP-110 using their computing power. Each vote carries weight proportional to an account's average 10-day hashrate on the pool between July 6 and July 15.
Foundry's default position is "No" unless "Yes" votes exceed 51% of participating hashrate, at which point the pool will switch its signaling across all blocks. The voting window runs through early August at block 961,632, and accounts that don't respond automatically count as "No" votes. Miners can change their votes during the open window, with individual choices remaining confidential.
What BIP-110 Means for Bitcoin Infrastructure
BIP-110, dubbed the "reduced data temporary soft fork," proposes restricting non-monetary data on the Bitcoin blockchain. The soft fork would limit most new outputs to 34 bytes, restore an 83-byte cap on OP_RETURN outputs, and reject data pushes exceeding 256 bytes.
Supporters argue these restrictions would reduce blockchain spam and preserve Bitcoin's function as peer-to-peer electronic cash. Opponents, including Strategy founder Michael Saylor and Blockstream co-founder Adam Back, contend the proposal transforms a policy disagreement into a consensus-layer change that could invalidate legitimate fee-paying transactions.
Implications for Mining Professionals
Foundry controls approximately one-third of Bitcoin's network hashrate, making its position critical to BIP-110's potential activation. Analysts at BGeometrics note that decisions by Foundry and Antpool could push daily signaling into ranges that meaningfully affect the proposal's outcome.
This governance moment emphasizes the technical and political responsibilities mining professionals now carry. As protocol-level decisions increasingly involve direct miner participation, understanding Bitcoin improvement proposals and their network implications becomes essential knowledge for mining operations teams and pool administrators. The outcome will likely influence how future Bitcoin protocol debates engage the mining community.
