The largest mining pool, Foundry, initiates a vote on the BIP-110 hard fork: what this means for the ecosystem
Leading mining pool Foundry USA Pool has launched a voting procedure for the BIP-110 proposal, posting a corresponding page with technical documentation and providing clients with the opportunity to express their position via an email form.
According to published materials, BIP-110 is a soft fork aimed at limiting arbitrary non-monetary data in Bitcoin transactions. Specifically, the initiative proposes introducing strict limits on the OP_RETURN field and other channels used to transmit information unrelated to money transfers. This could affect applications such as Omni Layer, tokenization protocols, and a number of services relying on the blockchain for storing metadata.
The voting will end at block #961,632, which is tentatively scheduled for early August. Given that Foundry controls over 22% of the global Bitcoin hashrate (data from Hashrate Index), the outcome of this vote could significantly impact the network's development direction.
Analytical Commentary: Foundry's initiative is not just a technical survey but a serious signal to the market. If BIP-110 is adopted, it could fundamentally change the transaction economics for those who use Bitcoin not only as a store of value but also as a platform for creating digital assets. I expect that in the coming weeks, we will see an active discussion among miners, developers, and users, which will determine how ready the consensus is for such restrictions. In the long term, if the soft fork passes, it could make Bitcoin cleaner and more spam-resistant, but at the same time reduce its flexibility as a platform.