Homework on Stale Blocks

Blockchain and Bitcoin 101
#3230

1.They both append their blocks to the blockchain. These blocks exist simultaneously for some time.
2. It is a block which was rejected by the network because it was a part of the shorter blockchain
3. These blocks occurs when nodes receive a new version of the blockchain which is longer than their own. So they find a place where chains was forked and drop blocks from shorter version
4. It is warrant of your transaction will not get into stale block.

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#3231

  1. They both are seen as a valid peace of the blockchain in that time and space until the strongest version is picked-up, what leads me to the next question

  2. A stale block is a block that got added to the in that space time block that was the truth but because another chain was more valid or stronger so to speak, the (stale) block got dropped.

  3. It get dropped out of the blockchain because there is another chain stronger/ more valid.

  4. It is possible that your transaction gets added to a stale block ant therefore get dropped out of the chain.

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#3232

  1. When 2 miners solve a block at the same time then there will be 2 versions of the blockchain until another miner joins 1 of these versions which will make that version of the blockchain longer. Once this has happened then the new block on the shorter version of the blockchain will be dropped by the entire network and the transactions that made up that block will be returned to the mempool.

  2. A stale block is a block that was originally in the blockchain but was dropped because there was another version of the blockchain that was longer without that block in it.

  3. Stale blocks occur when 2 miners produce a block at exactly the same time

  4. It is important to wait for more than block to be confirmed when sending or receiving a TX to ensure that the block your TX is in does not get dropped.

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#3233
  1. What happens in the bitcoin network when two miners solve a block at the same time?

The chain adds both blocks at the same time

  1. What is a stale block?

A stale is when the blockchain drops the block because another chain is longer

  1. How do stale blocks occur?

When two miners finish and add the blocks ats the same time

  1. Why is it important to wait for more than one block to be confirmed when sending or receiving a transaction?

It’s important to wait for more than one block because that way you can ensure your transaction is not dropped

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#3234

  1. The blocks begin to propagate around the network simultaneously and the blockchain divides into two branches. As a result, different nodes in the network have different information, in other words their chain of blocks differs.

  2. A stale block is a block that gets mined at the same time with another new block, but which then is left without a connection to the next block when chain continues.

  3. A stale block occurs when two miners solve a block at the same time. Networking happens in time and space, so propagating the blocks to the network take some time. The next mined block can only include hash data from one of these simultaneously mined blocks. Now the branch that is continued with the new block “wins” and the other block, a stale block, gets removed from the chain.

  4. There is always a possibility that your transaction data ends up in a stale block and confirmation of your transaction gets removed when new blocks are mined.

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#3235

  1. When two miners solve a block at the same time both their blocks get initially upended onto the network. Some nodes nearer one of the miners will get that respective block. Once a 3rd miner chooses o of the chains, usually to do with geographical location of the nodes. That chain will be longer then the other one, which means that chain will be accepted into the network. The other block will be dropped (becoming orphaned/stale) and all its transactions will return to the mempool. The longest doesn’t mean the one with the most blocks, but the one with the most difficulty (data) of blocks.

  2. A stale block (or sometimes referred to as orphan blocks). Is a block that is valid (solved the cryptographic puzzle), but it is dropped due to there being a longer chain elsewhere.

  3. Stale blocks occurs when two miners have solved the cryptographic puzzle and add their valid blocks to the chain at the same time. There is always only one winner, so once that is decided, the block on the smaller chain is dropped. Resulting in it becoming stale.

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#3236
  1. What happens in the bitcoin network when two miners solve a block at the same time?
    The solved blocks create two new possibilities of the blockchain. The next block that is generated is added to one of these two blocks. The other one gets rejected and the transactions go back to the mempool.
  2. What is a stale block?
    A stale block is a generated but later rejected block from the blockchain.
  3. How do stale blocks occur?
    When more then one new block is created just one block can be added to the chain the others were rejected. That block that gets the next new block added will stay in the chain.
  4. Why is it important to wait for more than one block to be confirmed when sending or receiving a transaction?
    If the transaction turns out to be on a stale block it might get back to the mempool and can’t be fulfilled.
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#3237

  1. When two blocks are solved at the same time we will have two blockchains until one gets a greater PoW.

  2. A stale block is a block that gets dropped when another version of the blockchain proves to have a greater PoW.

  3. As mentioned above when there are two (or more versions) of the blockchain only one will become ultimate blockchain, the blocks on the other versions will be dropped (these blocks are called staled blocks)

  4. When a block is solved it is broadcasted to all other nodes in the network. When we have more than 1 version of the blockchain, only one version will prevail. Hence, the blocks on the other versions (the ones with less PoW) will be dropped and these transactions will return to the mempool. It is important to wait until 6 confirmations to be (more) certain that you are in the “correct” version of the blockchain.

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#3238
  1. What happens in the bitcoin network when two miners solve a block at the same time?
  • When two miners solve a block at the same time it is accepted by the nodes closest to the miner. This creates two separate blocks that are then added to the chain and wait for PoW to take action. The next miner will indirectly choose the next block to mine on creating a longer chain on one block which results in the network accepting this and dropping the block with the shorter chain by sending the block back to the mempool.
  1. What is a stale block?
  • A stale block is a block that was once accepted into the blockchain by some of the network of nodes then eventually dropped and sent back to the mempool due to it being the shorter of the two chains that have been created by two miners solving a block at the same time.
  1. How do stale blocks occur?
  • A stale block is a block that was once accepted into the blockchain by some of the network of nodes then eventually dropped and sent back to the mempool due to it being the shorter of the two chains that have been created by two miners solving a block at the same time.
  1. Why is it important to wait for more than one block to be confirmed when sending or receiving a transaction?
  • It is standard to wait 6 blocks to receive confirmation of a transaction. 10 minutes is around the time it takes for the blockchain to essentially stabilize or prevent the issue of stale blocks.
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#3239
  1. their blocks get sent to nodes until another block is build on top of one thus making the chain longer and winning.

2.droped block

  1. stale block is the one that was left out/dropped, miner that chose 2nd version hit the target sooner=longer chain gets approved

  2. to be sure your tx goes through, the block gets put on chain and not in stale block and then mempool

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#3240

  1. The nodes closer to each miner will accept his block, and then when another miner chooses one of those miners to continue the blockchain, that block gets accepted, and the other one gets rejected.

  2. A block that is sent back to the mempool, beause of another block being chosen.

  3. They occur when two blocks get accepted at the same time.

  4. You need to wait 6 confirmations, because the block could be sent back to mempool in case of another block being chosen.

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#3241

  1. Both miners propagates the valid blocks they have mined, until a third miner mines a new block on one of the 2 chains and make it the new “real” blockchain.

  2. A valid block that was mined and added to the block chain and then later removed due to another chain being longer.

  3. When there are 2 valid blocks linked to the previous block in the blockchain and one block is inevitably dropped. It will be dropped when the competing block has more blocks being added to it, thus being longer than the other (now stale) block.

  4. To ensure that the transaction was not added to a now stale block, but rather the current “real” block chain version.

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#3242

  1. the longest blockchain mins and the shortest is dropped

  2. short blockchain that’s been dropped(orphaned)

3)stale block happens when 2 blocks were produced at the same time and one gets dropped

  1. it’s important to wait for a confirmation to prevent a stale block
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#3243
  1. Each block acts like it is the valid block and accepts the next block. The first to have the longest block is accepted as the blockchain. All blocks from the other block not counted as part of the valid blockchain are returned to the mempool. It is important to wait for 6 more blocks to be added to the block chain to be sure it will be confirmed as the valid blockchain.
  2. A block that is in not part of the finally confirmed block chain.
  3. Two blocks solve the algorithm at the same time and consider themselves to be the valid blockchain. After new blocks are added to themself or another block one or the other will be considered the confirmed blockchain and the other block will have to send its newly found blocks back to the mempool. These are considered stale.
  4. To be sure that block is valid and to avoid stale blocks.
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#3244
  1. If two miners solve a block at the same time, the longest block will be added to the blockchain and the other will be orphaned (stale block).
  2. Stale block is the orphaned block that was discarded. Because the block was solved same time as another miner’s block, it was discarded because it was not the longest chain.
  3. Stale blocks occur when proof of blockchain does not include the particular block that is discarded. because it was not accepted by the majority of the network.
  4. To prevent double spending, 6 confirmations are a general practice to ensure confirmation on the blockchain.
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#3245
  1. The block in the longest chain wins, other block is discarded
  2. A stale block is the one that is dropped
  3. When there are two versions of the truth, one block is dropped.
  4. More confirmations verify
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#3246

  1. It creates two versions of the blockchain.

  2. A stale block is the block that is eventual removed and the transactions go back into the mempool.

  3. They occur when the subsequent block chooses another block to link to, creating a stale block since the network takes the longest chain as the real blockchain and builds upon that one.

  4. It can take up to six blocks before your block could be realized as a stale block.

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#3247

What happens in the bitcoin network when two miners solve a block at the same time?

When conflicting transactions take place amongst two or more branches; increased Replace By Fee [RBF] and/ or attempts to double spend takes place.

What is a stale block?

The terminology known as “orphan block” is commonly synonymous with the terminology known as “stale block”. Within the Bitcoin source code and within a more technical scope; orphan blocks and stale blocks are described as two independent concepts (en.bitcoin.it, n.d.).

How do stale blocks occur?

The blockchain is based on a ‘difficultywise-longest and well-formed’ algorithm. In an orphan block, the parent is not known. The validity of a stale block exists in the part of the chain known to no longer be the longest, (en.bitcoin.it, n.d.).

Why is it important to wait for more than one block to be confirmed when sending or receiving a transaction?

Best practice states to have at least six confirmations. According to Bitmax; “one can think of bitcoin as the world’s first distributed clock”, (Bitmax, n.d.)

Block Timestamp Security Rules

  • List item Block header (nonce) entered by the miner.

  • List item The real time the block was produced.

Emergency Difficulty Adjustment [EDA]

  • Bitcoin has two mechanisms in order to protect against miners manipulating the timestamp:
  1. Median Past Time [MPT] rule; which states that the timestamp is required to be further forward in chronological time than the median of the last occurring eleven blocks.
  2. Future Block Time rule; which states timestamps cannot be more than 2 hours in the future. based upon the MAX_FUTURE_BLOCK_TIME constant; relative to the median time from the node’s peers, (bitmax, n.d.) A maximum of ninety minutes.

References:

Bitcoin.It, (n.d.), Orphan Block - Bitcoin Wiki; Retrieved From: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Orphan_Block

Bitcoin.Org, (n.d.), Stale Block - Bitcoin Glossary; Retrieved From: https://bitcoin.org/en/glossary/stale-block bitcoin.org

Forkmonitor.Info, (n.d.), Fork Monitor; Retrieved From: https://forkmonitor.info/stale/btc/650491

Cryptobolts, (n.d.), What Are Stale Blocks? Simply Explained - Crypto Bolts - Medium; Retrieved From: https://medium.com/@cryptobolts/what-are-stale-blocks-simply-explained-b445682274c6

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#3248
  1. the blockchain forks or splits into two. Gives the appearance of a double spend, but this is only temporary.
  2. a stale block is what the shortest block becomes after a temporary split…it goes back into the mempool
  3. stale blocks occur after a number of post-split confirmations. the shortest block in the split becomes a stale block after 6 blocks are added to the other block.
  4. by waiting for additional blocks to be confirmed, it allows the system to identify and properly resolve temporary splits so that the longest block survives and the shortest block gets orphaned and stale and goes back into the mempool…technically, it takes 6 additional blocks to fully confirm a transaction and add it to the official finalized blockchain
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#3249
  1. The chain that gets longer first is accepted and the shorter one is dropped.
  2. A stale block is a valid block that was dropped off the blockchain.
  3. Stale blocks happen when the chain accepts one valid block over another.
  4. If you add a transaction to a block that isn’t confirmed and the block gets orphaned you will lose the transaction.
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