Author: Kalle Rosenbaum 2015-09-27 15:10:24
Published on: 2015-09-27T15:10:24+00:00
A person was discussing weak blocks with his wife, and she asked why miners would publish a weak block if they find one. The person responded that while it might provide faster propagation for the miner's solved block, other miners mining a similar block will enjoy the same benefit. Therefore, publishing a weak block may just be giving away fast propagation times to someone else. The person asked for help understanding how publishing a weak block benefits its producer more than other miners. In response to this discussion, Tier Nolan via bitcoin-dev suggested that the POW threshold could be dynamic, and the first weak-block that builds on a new block could be forwarded with a smaller target. This would reduce the window size until at least one weak block is propagated. Additionally, if there is a transaction backlog, miners could forward merkle branches with transactions in the memory pool with a commitment in the coinbase.
Updated on: 2023-06-10T22:53:51.874492+00:00