The recent failure of Bitcoin Improvement Proposal or BIP-110 has prompted reflection on the singular circumstances surrounding the cryptocurrency’s origins. Giacomo Zucco, director of Plan B Network, argued that the chaotic outcome of the attempt demonstrates why fairly recreating Bitcoin from scratch in the present day would be virtually impossible.
BIP-110 aimed to impose temporary consensus restrictions limiting the amount of non-financial data that could be embedded in Bitcoin transactions.
Some people cringe when we talk about Bitcoin's "Immaculate Conception". But the unmitigated shitshow happening now on this new altcoin should make a pretty convincing case of why re-bootstrapping Bitcoin fairly today would be completely impossible. Educational. https://t.co/HJZNlwOnBE
— Giacomo Zucco (Bear Market Edition) (@giacomozucco) August 11, 2026
Proponents viewed these measures as a necessary step to reduce what they regarded as spam clogging the network.
Despite advocacy from figures including longtime developer Luke Dashjr, the proposal attracted only marginal miner support.
When the mandatory signaling period began, nodes enforcing the stricter rules diverged from the main chain, producing a minority blockchain.
That separate chain generated just two blocks before stalling, while the primary Bitcoin network advanced without disruption and left the fork far behind.Zucco described the episode as educational.
He noted that some observers dislike references to Bitcoin’s “immaculate conception,” yet the disorder surrounding the new altcoin chain that emerged from BIP-110 provides a clear illustration of the practical barriers.
In his assessment, any effort to re-bootstrap a system comparable to Bitcoin under fair conditions today would confront insurmountable obstacles.
The early years of Bitcoin unfolded largely outside the intense glare of financial markets, governmental attention, speculative pressures, and deliberate disruption.
Those quieter conditions no longer exist.
Contemporary attempts at significant protocol changes or new network launches immediately draw participation from a wide range of actors—speculators, trolls, motivated disruptors, and others—who can interfere with processes that once developed more organically.
Zucco suggested that even well-intentioned efforts quickly devolve into centralized decision-making or vulnerability to manipulation, underscoring the unreplicable nature of Bitcoin’s founding environment.
The BIP-110 outcome therefore serves dual purposes.
It reaffirms the difficulty of altering Bitcoin’s core rules without broad economic and technical consensus, while simultaneously highlighting why the original DLT / blockchain network remains unique.
The combination of historical timing, limited early attention, and gradual organic growth cannot be effectively engineered or even repeated in the current highly scrutinized landscape. For Zucco, the recent events offer a seemingly practical lesson in that reality.
