Author: Aidan Thornton 2011-09-14 19:52:49
Published on: 2011-09-14T19:52:49+00:00
In September 2011, Gavin Andresen proposed modifying the getwork code to build on the second-from-tip block if the first-on-tip block is on the discouraged list. This proposal was aimed at discouraging cartels from playing with difficulty levels and would require a majority of pools/miners to adopt the "discourage blocks with stale timestamps" rule for it to be successful. This is because having less than 50% power would risk producing mostly orphan blocks.However, Andresen also noted that if only a small percentage of mining power adopts this scheme, everyone that does so will be harming themselves by increasing the odds that the next block they mine will become invalid. This proposal highlights the importance of consensus in the Bitcoin network and the need for miners to work together to maintain the integrity of the blockchain.
Updated on: 2023-06-04T19:32:57.905845+00:00