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What happens in the bitcoin network when two miners solve a block at the same time?
Both blocks begin propagating through the network until one of them is chosen over the other by the network. -
What is a stale block?
A block that was on the chain for a period of time alongside another newly mined block, but was dropped in favour of the other. -
How do stale blocks occur?
When multiple newly mined blocks are propagating on the network, the first to have another block added to it is accepted and the other(s) become stale and are dropped. -
Why is it important to wait for more than one block to be confirmed when sending or receiving a transaction?
If your transaction only has one confirmation, that block may become stale and be dropped. With each new confirmation, this probability drops significantly.
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What happens in the bitcoin network when two miners solve a block at the same time?
two version of truths exist at that time, both are valid blocks -
What is a stale block?
when a block gets dropped, and if there are forward blocks to this dropped block, all these will be dropped. These are so called stale blocks -
How do stale blocks occur?
because there can only be one version of truth, and out of the two version of truth, the most POW done block will prevail over the other. The valid block/s with lesser POW will be dropped as stale blocks -
Why is it important to wait for more than one block to be confirmed when sending or receiving a transaction?
because if you successfully created a block from a (going to be) stale block, your block will be dropped as well. it will waste your electricity and will get no BR and txn fee.
- The network chooses the longest block chain.
- Stale block is a dropped block.
- A stale block occurs when two miners produce valid blocks at similar times. The miner whose block is produced later or that propagates slower through the network ends up with the stale blocks.
- This is to minimise stale block or orphaned blocks, so the best practise is to wait for 6 confirmations or more.
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One will be confirmed and other one with shortest transactions chain will be stale block.
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Stale block is block that was once in the blockchain but then dropped and its transactions returned back to mempool.
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When two blocks are mined at the same time.
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Thereās possibility that stale block will occur, that why itās important to wait 6 confirmations in order to avoid it.
the question is for someone who is receiving and sending a transaction, not a miner. A miner should start mining right after a new block created, but when you send or receive a transaction you should at least wait for 6 confirmation then you can be sure that your transaction will be immutably recorded on the blockchain.
1What happens in the bitcoin network when two miners solve a block at the same time?
If two miners solve a block at same time, the blockchain will be splited into 2 chains. The block in the longest chain wins. The block in the shortest chain it will be dropped and became orphaned or stale block. The transactions in the stale block go to mempool.
2What is a stale block?
A stale block is a block that was append into the shortest chain and was dropped due to an occurence of split in the blockchain.
3How do stale blocks occur?
The stale blocks occur when two miners, append their valid block at same time into the blockchain. The longest chain wins and the blocks in the shortest chain are dropped from the blockchain.
4Why is it important to wait for more than one block to be confirmed when sending or receiving a transaction?
It is necessary to wait for 6 confirmations (blocks) to confirmed whend sending or receiving a transaction, because the transaction might be in a block belonging to a shortest chain and that block will be stale and all the transaction within the block go to mempool.
Homework - Stale Blocks
Bitcoin Basics
What happens in the bitcoin network when two miners solve a block at the same time?
When two blocks are solved at the same time, one of the blocks will eventually be dropped as there can be only one version of truth. The block that gets chosen to be added would have a longer chain of verified blocks linked to it. The block that is not chosen would return to the mempool.
What is a stale block?
A stale block (which is also called an orphaned block) is a verified block that didnāt get added to the blockchain due to not being linked with enough other verified blocks to surpass the other blocks that were added to the blockchain.
How do stale blocks occur?
Stale blocks occur when although the blocks in question have solved the puzzle they were not linked with enough other verified blocks to make the blockchain.
Why is it important to wait for more than one block to be confirmed when sending or receiving a transaction?
Its important to wait as the transaction could be included in a stale block and therefor it would not be added to the blockchain.
- Each miner will produce a new current version of the blockchain, at this point there are 2 version of the blockchain. But as soon as another miner gets too add a new block on whichever chain, the shorter one will automatically be dropped and will be invalidated, the transactions from that block will be returned to mempool so it can be added later.
- Stale block is the block that gets dropped because although it is valid, a newer longer blockchain was selected as the current version of the blockchain.
- Occurs when 2 miners added the block on the chain at the same time, then later on another miner gets one of the 2 chains then add another block on it, the unselected chain will have its previous block as a stale block.
- Important to wait for block confirmation, so we can confirm that transaction is written in the block chain and was not written as part of a stale block.
- What happens in the bitcoin network when two miners solve a block at the same time?
- What is a stale block?
- How do stale blocks occur?
- Why is it important to wait for more than one block to be confirmed when sending or receiving a transaction?
A.1. When two miners solve a block at the same time both blocks are added to the Blockchain network causing a fork. Eventually one of the added blocks will be discarded and therefore becomes a Stale block.
A.2. Stale block is a valid mined block that was once part of the Blockchain but it has been discarded because it was part of a shorter chain.
A.3. Stale blocks occur when two blocks are added to the Blockchain at the exactly same time and one of them is later discarded from the Blockchain. The discarded block is the Stale block.
For instance, when two blocks are added to the Blockchain at the exactly same time the Blockchain is forked into block A and B. The blocks previous to block A and B are exactly the same; the only difference is the last blockāBlockchain + last block A and Blockchain + last block B.
If the next miner upends its block to block A then block B is discarded from the Blockchain and the fork ceases to exist. The same also happens if the next miner upends its block to block B then block A is discarded from the Blockchain and the fork ceases to exist.
By default the Blockchain network always prioritises the longest chain available. A longer chain is evidence of most PoW accomplished.
Transactions (TX) in the Stale blocks revert to their Mempools and become unconfirmed TXs awaiting the next block formation cycle.
A.4. When sending or receiving transactions it is important to wait for more than one block to be confirmed in order to reduce the risk of a TX to be discarded. This might happen if that TX is part of a Stale block. Actually, it is safer to wait for about 6 blocks to be confirmed onto the network.
Stale block is not always a single block but it could also be multiple blocks part of a short chain that ends up discarded by the Blockchain network. Again, the Blockchain network always prioritises the longest chain available. A longer chain is evidence of most PoW accomplished.
The solution to prevent Stale block occurrence is already deployed by the Bitcoin network by releasing newly mined blocks in approximately 10 minutes interval. This allows enough time for the information to propagate across the network worldwide.
The 10 minutes interval is a compromised solution as the Hashrate also influences the difficulty level of the network. For example, if the mining activity dramatically decreases then the network would adjust the difficulty level so newly mined blocks would be released approximately in 20 minutes interval. Meaning, the difficulty level decreases as mining participation also decreases. This is problematic because the network becomes insecure and vulnerable to tampering.
There is a school of thought that argues 10 minutes interval slows the network versus another school of thought concerned that a faster network is prone to increase Stale blocks and therefore fragment the network. In light of this, 10 minutes interval seems to be the wisest choice regardless.
- What happens in the bitcoin network when two miners solve a block at the same time?
When two miners solve the problem at the same time it creates a momentaneously issue in the network that the blockchain will have two versions of the truth. Which means that there are two valid versions of the blockchain. This issue will be fixed after one version of the truth has six confirm blocks supporting that version.
- What is a stale block?
A stale block itās a block that has been dropped because it wasnāt used in the longest version of truth. The longest version of truth is the blockchain that has more PoW in it.
- How do stale blocks occur?
Stale blocks happen when different miners solve the mathematical problem and upload their block at same time into the blockchain. Then a third miner continues in one of those blocks, after 6 confirmed blocks that follow that version of the truth and have more PoW in it. All the other versions of true will be eliminated from the blockchain and all the transactions in it will be sended to the mempool.
- Why is it important to wait for more than one block to be confirmed when sending or receiving a transaction?
Itās important because there is a possibility that the block will be dropped for the longest version of true that does not necessarily have that block on it. This means that the block will be considered as a stale block.
- What happens in the bitcoin network when two miners solve a block at the same time?
The bock split on two different ends and the longest chain will win. - What is a stale block?
The block of the shortest chain after a fork, which will be moved to the mempool. - How do stale blocks occur?
It is the block with the shortest chain after a fork. - Why is it important to wait for more than one block to be confirmed when sending or receiving a transaction?
Confirmation of 6 is recommended to make sure your transaction is not in a block that will be dropped and to avoid the stale block or orphaned block occur.
- What happens in the bitcoin network when two miners solve a block at the same time?
The network will take the longest block and then the shortest block will go back to the mempool - What is a stale block?
A block that was successfully mined but did not get added to the network due to it being smaller in size - How do stale blocks occur?
This occurs when two miners produce a valid block at the same time and once a third block is added to one of the first two the block that didnāt get added will become a stale/orphaned block - Why is it important to wait for more than one block to be confirmed when sending or receiving a transaction?
Itās important to wait so that you can be sure that your transaction was not part of a block that became a stale/orphaned block. Itās best to wait for 6 blocks to be added.
- When two miners solve a block at the same time, two version of truth exist. The block is propagated to nearby nodes. Depending on which node you query, you will get a different version of the blockchain.
- A stale block is a block that becomes removed from the blockchain. All of its transactions are sent back to the mempool.
- This happens when another competing block was appended, causing that blockchain (version of truth) to be favored because it has more proof of work.
- The 10 minute waiting period allows blocks to be propagated through the network one at a time without having to compete with other blocks. If there are more blocks being distributed through the network, there will be more competing versions of truth depending on which node you query.
When two blocks are solved at the same time, the block that is in the longest chain will be added to the ledger.
It is important to wait for at least six more blocks to be solved after a transaction, in order to ensure that the transaction is confirmed. This should take about 10 minutes.
- Whichever block is picked up by another miner, added to a chain faster and propagated into a longer chain will be kept while the other block will be orphaned and the TX will be returned to the mempool
- A stale block is a block that is part of a shorter chain that was not confirmed by 6 transactions
- A stale block occurs when 2 miners solve a nonce at the same time creating 2 versions of the same TX and then try to propagate them. The one that becomes part of a shorter chain then becomes stale and not trusted.
- This is important to make certain that the block is in fact valid and not orphaned by the trusted chain.
1. What happens in the bitcoin network when two miners solve a block at the same time?
- There are two blockchains created and whichever one becomes longest first wins, and the other blockās transactions get sent back to the mempool
2. What is a stale block?
- A stale block is a block that was mined at the same time as another but it became part of a shorter chain and is automatically discarded.
3. How do stale blocks occur?
- They occur as a result of the race to confirm the longest chain.
4. Why is it important to wait for more than one block to be confirmed when sending or receiving a transaction?
- Itās important to wait in order that your transaction may not end up in what becomes a stale/orphaned block.
- When two miners solve a block at the same time, both will be added to the blockchain. However, different nodes on the network will be notified and updated with the two different blocks. Whichever block has a new block appended to it is added to the blockchain, the other is rejected and has itās transactions sent back to the mempool.
- A stale block is a block that is essentially rejected from the blockchain
- Stale blocks occur when 2 blocks are created at the same time, but a new block isnāt appending to one of them and it becomes a stale block.
- 6 confirmations are beneficial to ensure that the transactions in your block are valid so that it will not be dropped from the blockchain (ie. become a stale block).
- The chain splits into two chains until the longest chain wins.
- A block from the shorter chain which was dropped.
- They occur when a competing chain of the blockchain wins as longest chain and the block is dropped and its transactions return to the mempool.
- Because before that there is still a significant chance of the block becoming stale, by belonging to the shorter losing chain.
1. What happens in the bitcoin network when two miners solve a block at the same time? Two blocks, #1 and #2 both being valid, propagate thru the system. At some point another miner comes and chooses to build on top of block #1. Block #1 being chosen causes that version of the chain to be longer than the chain of block #2 thereby causing block #2 to be rejected. Block #2 becomes what is referred to as a stale block and itās contents are then sent back to the mempool.
2. What is a stale block? A successfully mined block that gets rejected
3. How do stale blocks occur? Two successfully mined blocks propagate at the same time but only one is chosen because another block at the same point had its chain extended to a longer length first.
4. Why is it important to wait for more than one block to be confirmed when sending or receiving a transaction? Just to be sure that the block that includes your transaction does not get dropped. It is suggested to wait for at least 6 confirmations.What happens in the bitcoin network when two miners solve a block at the same time?
The chain splits into two chains. The longest chain will be accepted as the main block chain, while the transactions of the other chain will be returned to the mempool.
What is a stale block?
A stale block are completed blocks of the shorter chains, after the miners solve the block at the same time
How do stale blocks occur?
A stale block occur when a competing chain of the block chain is not accepted as the main block chain because there is a longer chain.
Why is it important to wait for more than one block to be confirmed when sending or receiving a transaction?
With more completed blocks, there is significantly lower chances that the transaction is on a stale block (shorter chain), hence improving security