Foundry Digital, one of the largest Bitcoin mining pools, has announced that it will allow its clients to vote on BIP-110, a proposed soft fork that has divided the Bitcoin community. The mining pool will poll participating miners on whether to support the protocol change.
BIP-110 proposes modifications to Bitcoin’s transaction validation rules. Proponents argue the soft fork would improve network efficiency and reduce congestion, while opponents contend it could fundamentally alter the economic incentives that secure the network.
By allowing miners to vote directly, Foundry is giving its pool participants a say in the governance of the protocol they help secure. The voting mechanism will use hash rate weighting, meaning miners who contribute more computing power will have proportionally greater influence on the outcome.
The BIP-110 debate has intensified in recent weeks, with prominent figures in the Bitcoin ecosystem taking opposing positions. Ordinals advocate Leonidas has proposed an alternative client called DOG Mode that would allow the types of transactions BIP-110 might restrict, framing the debate as a question of how permissionless Bitcoin should remain.
Foundry’s move signals that mining pools are taking an increasingly active role in protocol governance discussions. As the intermediary between miners and the network, pools have significant influence over which software versions their participants run.
The outcome of the vote could have meaningful implications for Bitcoin’s development trajectory, though BIP-110 would require broad consensus across the ecosystem to activate.
This article was adapted from Bitcoin Magazine. Read the original here.
