Author: odinn 2015-07-04 03:32:47
Published on: 2015-07-04T03:32:47+00:00
A discussion about the recent Bitcoin fork occurred on the bitcoin-dev mailing list. The cause of the fork was analyzed, and it was determined that a large portion of the hashrate on the network was SPV mining. This means that miners were able to get the header of a block before fully validating it in order to mine on top of the longest chain they knew about. Although BIP66 triggered the issue this time, any miner creating an invalid block for any reason with the software miners are running now would have done so as well. The Bitcoin protocol allows for this practice, and miners are using custom patches to mine more efficiently and make up for low profit margins.
Updated on: 2023-06-10T02:06:07.982711+00:00