Homework on Stale Blocks

Blockchain and Bitcoin 101
#3994

  1. When two blocks are mined at the same time the blocks will propagate to miners and other nodes, like two chains. Whichever side mines the next block will be the side that the chain continues on.

  2. A stale block is a block that was mined but was not included on the longest form of the blockchain. The result of two blocks being mined at the same time.

  3. Stale blocks are the result of two miners solving a block at the same time, the side that does not continue along the chain ends and the blocks included are orphaned or become stale.

  4. It is important to wait for more than one block (preferably 6) to be confirmed to ensure that your transaction is not included in a block that will become stale or be orphaned.

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#3995

The longest chain will win eventually and the other block is considered stale. the other block will br dropped into the mempool.
2.The block of the shortedst chain from a fork will be dropped into the mempool.
3.Stalke blocks occur after a fork, the block with the shortest chain.
4. More confirmations are used to make sure it is not dropped from the chain.

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#3996

  1. What happens in the bitcoin network when two miners solve a block at the same time?
    Both miners start to propagate their mined block on their nearest nodes of the network.
    A chain split will then occurs, and two versions of the truth will be available on the blockchain.
    If another miner append a new mined block to one of those two chains, then the valid blockchain will be the longest.
    Then all the nodes of the network will accept this longest chain and the other chain will be the stale/orphaned block.

  2. What is a stale block?
    That’s a block that has been droped because another block has been choosen instead of it.

  3. How do stale blocks occur?
    Stale blocks occur when two miners solved the nounces approximately at the same time.

  4. Why is it important to wait for more than one block to be confirmed when sending or receiving a transaction?
    It avoids that stale block occurs

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#3997

  1. When two miners solve a block at the same time, they both end up sending it out to the other nodes. This creates two valid versions of the blockchain. However, after more blocks are confirmed. One of the chains will become longer, making it the most accepted chain. This will make the block that was not built on as much become stale or orphaned.

  2. A stale block is a block that is no longer accepted and dropped from the blockchain because it was not built on top of due to not reaching nodes fast enough.

  3. A stale block occurs when two blocks are made at once. One of the two blocks will become stale because the other will end up being accepted by a larger amount of nodes. This creates a longer chain, making the other block stale.

  4. It is important to wait for more than one block to be confirmed when sending or receiving a transaction because the block where your transaction lies could end up becoming stale, if it happened to be made at the same time as another block.

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#3998

  1. What happens in the bitcoin network when two miners solve a block at the same time?
    If two minors solve at the same time both blocks will be added to the blockchain creating two versions of the blockchain. The version that gets a new block added the fastest, making the blockchain longer, will continue to grow as the other version will drop the other block.

  2. What is a stale block?
    A stale block is a block that was once on the blockchain but got dropped because another miner added a block at the same time and that block went on to get longer first. Therefore one block was dropped and the transactions were sent back to the mempool.

  3. How do stale blocks occur?
    Stale blocks occur when two miners add a block at the same time creating two versions of the blockchain, whichever version of the blockchain gets longer faster is the version of the blockchain that will continue. The one that does not continue will drop that block creating a “stale block”.

  4. Why is it important to wait for more than one block to be confirmed when sending or receiving a transaction?
    Its important to wait for at least 6 blocks to be added to the blockchain in case your block is dropped due to a stale block.

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#3999
  1. What happens in the bitcoin network when two miners solve a block at the same time?
    A: The longest chain will eventually win and the competing block/blocks will become stale.
  2. What is a stale block?
    A: A block that is no longer accepted as the truth by the rest of the blockchain.
  3. How do stale blocks occur?
    A: When a block is produced and added to the chain that is not accepted as the truth because a competing block has been accepted and it’s chain is longer.
  4. Why is it important to wait for more than one block to be confirmed when sending or receiving a transaction?
    A: Because it can take some time for the blocks to be propagated throughout the nodes and it could turn out that your transaction is in an stale block.
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#4000

Waiting will not prevent or avoid stale blocks. It only ensures your tx is not part of it.

#4001

  1. When two miners solve a block at the same time, it creates two blocks. One of which will become a stale block if other miners continue building on the other block.

  2. A stale block is a block that is no longer being built on, in the blockchain. Eventually the block will be sent back to the memory so that transactions can be re-mined.

  3. Stale blocks occur when two miners are mining the same transaction at the same time, all the info doesn’t have to be the same but as long as some of the same info is the same it will create a stale block.

  4. It is important to wait for more than one block to be confirmed so that your transaction goes to the longest chain(to avoid stale blocks).

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#4002
  1. At first, Both blocks will be added to the Blockchain. Then it depends on where the next miner adds the next block.
  2. The block without the added block will be blocked and is calles stale block.
  3. Ref. 1&2 the stale block return to the mempool.
  4. It takes approx. 6 confirmations to make sure the blocks dont get blocket and the transactions gets lost.
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#4003
  1. Both of the solved blocks get added to the blockchain, creating two different block paths within the blockchain. Then a competition ensues; the longest block path is the one that eventually gets accepted as the blockchain.

2 & 3. Referring to my first answer, a stale block is a block/s with the shortest path out of the two simultaneously solved blocks. The reason why a block becomes stale, or orphaned, is because the block with the longer path, had a version of the truth (a prev hash or nonce I think) that other miners agree with, thus making that chain of blocks longer; this doesn’t make the other block untrue however.

  1. Waiting for more than 1 confirmation assures one that their Tx is within a blockchain that miners are adding blocks to (i.e. they deem said blockchain as a better version of the truth compared to other alternatives), which guarantees that their Tx will not be sent back to the Mempool.
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#4004
  1. When 2 miners in the bitcoin network solve a block at the same time, both of those blocks will get propagated throughout the network
  2. A stale block is a block that has been dropped
  3. Stale blocks occur because 2 miners propagated a new block at the same time however only one of the chains will continue and the other block will be dropped thus creating a stale block
  4. It is important to wait for more than one block to be confirmed when sending or receiving a transaction because one doesn’t know if their transaction will end up in a stale block that ends up being dropped and going back to the mempool.
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#4005
  1. In the bitcoin network when two miners solve a block at the same time will win the longest blockchain.
  2. A stale block is part of the shorter blockchain , dropped because at the same time it was produced a block being part of a longer blockchain .
  3. two blocks produced at the same time , will win the one being part of the longer blockchain.
  4. To avoid having an orphaned block on the blockchain.
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#4006
  1. Both are entitled to insert their respective blocks in the blockchain. However, only one of them will be permanently confirmed.
  2. Those are blocks that are disconsidered after they have been already inserted in the blockchain, due to the fact that they integrate a smaller version of the blockchain than another created simultaneously.
  3. That occurs when new blocks are created for one of the blockchain versions. The smaller version is dropped and its blocks are orphaned.
  4. Due to the risk that this transaction is inserted in a stale block.
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#4007

  1. What happens in the bitcoin network when two miners solve a block at the same time?
    Both blocks create two separate versions of the blockchain. Once another miner adds a new block to one of the two version of the blockchains, the other blockchain (conflicting block) gets dropped.

  2. What is a stale block?
    Blocks that were in the blockchain at one time but were dropped because there was a version of the blockchain without that block and was longer.

  3. How do stale blocks occur?
    Stale blocks occur when the hash target is unusually low and miners are adding blocks before nodes receive the updated copies of the blockchain.

  4. Why is it important to wait for more than one block to be confirmed when sending or receiving a transaction?
    It is important to wait for multiple confirmations because it might take some time before all of the nodes are informed that your block’s transactions were returned to the memepool in the case it became a stale block.

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#4008
  1. When two miners solve a block at the same time, the information gets propagated first to their closest nodes, which means, further nodes would get the information later and at the same time someone would be appending already a new block to one of these that has not even arrived to some further nodes.
    2.A stale block is a block that has been dropped because it is not active anymore since another longer chain version has been picked and confirmed.
    3.several confirmations of a block gives time to the network to actually propagate that block thus minimizing the issue with the stale blocks.
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#4009

My Answers:

  1. They both distribute their blocks to the network of nodes and create a temporary split in the blockchain due to different nodes not receiving the same block.

  2. It is a valid block that was in the blockchain at some point but then got rejected/dropped due to another version of the blockchain that is longer without those blocks in it, also know as an orphaned block.

  3. Once the network of nodes determine the longest POW (chain) those blocks that are not in the longest version of the blockchain get rejected/dropped and are put back in the mempool.

  4. Due to slate/orphaned blocks occurring in the blockchain.

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#4010
  1. The block on the longest/with the most PoW copy of the blockchain will be used. The other copy will be come stale and be orphaned and disposed of from the mempool.
  2. The block on the copy of the blockchain with the least PoW. It is on the copy that is orphaned by the nodes.
  3. When two miners solve the same block at the same time, hence making the blockchain split into two different parts with two versions of the truth.
  4. Because a block could be confirmed only by the split, and the transaction would be rejected because that version of the blockchain has been dropped. If there are 2 confirmations, it means that the transaction is on the accepted version of the blockchain.
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#4011
  1. What happens in the bitcoin network when two miners solve a block at the same time?
    The blockchain splits into two ends and one of the blocks is ultimately dropped.
  2. What is a stale block?
    It’s an orphaned block, meaning it was dropped due to a fork and all transactions inside were sent back to the mempool.
  3. How do stale blocks occur?
    They occur when two blocks are mined at approximately the same time.
  4. Why is it important to wait for more than one block to be confirmed when sending or receiving a transaction?
    It’s important because in case of a fork a single block is accepted and the transactions from the other one are sent back to the mempool.
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#4012
  1. What happens in the bitcoin network when two miners solve a block at the same time?
    It introduced the issue of stale blocks. One of them will eventually drop.
  2. What is a stale block?
    Invalidated block. Dropped block
  3. How do stale blocks occur?
    It happens when we have two version of truths around the network. One of them will take over and the other drops.
  4. Why is it important to wait for more than one block to be confirmed when sending or receiving a transaction?
    To minimize the issue of stale/orphaned blocks.
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#4013
  1. The longest chain wins and the other block is discarded.
  2. It’s the block that was in the blockchain but was dropped because another block was produced at the same time but with a longer chain.
  3. Stale blocks happen when two blocks are produced with the same version of the truth but it’s dropped and the blockchain continues with the other block.
  4. The more confirmations the longer the blockchain lenght, the longest blockchain is the one that is accepted as the best version.
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