2020-08-21  Reportedly, Antpool mined the stale block which had 2426 transactions which found its’ way into block height 644,543 but was replaced by another block.

This new block was selected as the part of a longer chain, which has only the Coinbase transaction; the miner of the block is unknown. The Bitcoin [BTC] blockchain witnesses a rare event with what is called a ‘stale block.’ A stale block represents a valid block which has its’ transactions reversed because it fails to become a part of the main chain against another competing chain. The transactions from the stale block were moved to the next blocks.

BitMEX Research found,

The stale block contained 2,426 transactions, broken down as follows:
•1 coinbase
•2,362 confirmed in the next block 644,544
•62 confirmed in block 644,546
•1 as yet unconfirmed

Essentially, on 20th August at around 11: 40 hours two versions of Bitcoin blockchain was active for a short while, both had valid confirmations from the miners. If the same address sent two transactions are the time, the blockchain would have possibly seen ‘double spent’ on the network. However, BitMEX research also saw no signs of that.

It noted,

No evidence of any double spends

The Coinbase fees paid to the Antpool miners was reversed, but the other transactions got confirmation in the subsequent blocks. This is one of the leading reasons why wallets and exchanges put a 3-6 confirmation rule before the deposits are credited.

Mining Pool Stats

Even if it were true the rule of the longer chain would have invalidated the stale block transactions. Moreover, the distribution of mining pool is considerably diverse. Antpool only accounts for around 10% of the total hash rate on Bitcoin.

Mining Pools Distribution Stats (Source)

Moreover, the mining ecosystem is quite robust with some of the most advanced hardware in the system, with a high opportunity cost as well. Thomas Heller, leading Bitcoin analyst and an expert on mining shared details of a new mining pool in the US, Canada and Germany. DMG Blockchain Solutions Inc. is looking to enable the “commercial release of its proprietary Mine Manager Enterprise Software (the “Mine Manager”).”

Heller also notes,

Furthermore just found out about a new Chinese pool launching by two of the biggest heavy hitters in the Chinese mining scene. Pools will keep getting more and more competitive!

Hence, with an expanding network of miners, the security against double-spent attacks and even efficiency in the validation process increases.

Article Produced By
BitCoin Warrior

https://bitcoinwarrior.net/2020/08/empty-block-replaces-2426-bitcoin-btctransactions-no-double-spends-reported-so-far/