Stale Blocks Homework
- When two miners solve a block at the same time both are valid, but sooner or later another miner will choose on over the other and that one will have longest blockchain with most PoW and this is the version of truth accepted. The one rejected will go to Mempool and be considered an orphan/ stale.
- A stale/ orphan block is the version of truth not accepted by the network; the transaction in a block that is dropped.
- Stale blocks occur when two miners propagate blocks through network at the same time and are valid, but one of them is removed and returned to the Mempool because it is shorter and rejected over a competing longer version of truth.
- It is important to wait for more than one block to be confirmed because it might be the case that your transaction is in a block that may be dropped. Waiting about ten minutes or six blocks allows new block to be validated.