Bitcoin cannot activate any soft forks for now, Drivechain creator says

Drivechain creator Paul Sztorc says Bitcoin’s upgrade process appears stalled. Since Taproot’s activation in November 2021, every proposed soft fork has failed to gain sufficient miner support, including the recent BIP‑110 attempt.

Failed BIP‑110 activation

BIP‑110, a temporary soft fork intended to limit non‑financial data in transactions, received only 2.53% miner signaling. After the mandatory signaling period began at block 961,632, the enforcing branch produced just two blocks before stalling, while the main chain continued normally.

Broader upgrade challenges

Sztorc notes that the BIP‑110 outcome reflects a wider problem: no soft fork has been activated since Taproot. Proposals such as OP_CAT, BIP‑360 (post‑quantum signatures), and others remain under discussion without a path to activation.

Implications for Drivechains

Drivechains (BIP‑300) would let developers experiment on sidechains while keeping Bitcoin’s base layer unchanged. However, the proposal itself requires a Bitcoin consensus change to implement the two‑way peg and withdrawal mechanism. Without miner approval, Drivechains cannot be deployed.

Miner incentives and security concerns

Under BIP‑300, miners would vote on sidechain withdrawals, linking their incentives to sidechain fee revenue. Critics warn of potential censorship or collusion, while supporters argue that attacking a profitable sidechain would harm miners’ future earnings.

Outlook

According to Sztorc, Bitcoin “cannot activate any soft forks, for the foreseeable future.” The network’s governance dynamics, dominated by miner signaling, appear to limit further consensus changes until a new coordination mechanism emerges.