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Title: How does a block have essentially no transactions besides the block reward? Post by: Severian on September 19, 2012, 02:50:27 AM My question is probably a function of my ignorance of the deeper parts of the protocol, but does this happen often?
Quote http://blockchain.info/block-index/297083/00000000000001af07240240994e4dabf9856cfc25c7bc6bd72bbb0c9193d19f Block #199464 Summary Number of transactions 1 Output Total 50 BTC Estimated Transaction Volume 0 BTC Transaction Fees 0 BTC Height 199464 (Main chain) Timestamp 2012-09-19 01:18:11 Received Time 2012-09-19 01:18:35 Relayed By Deepbit Difficulty 2,694,047.95295501 Bits 436615736 Size (kB) 0.2177734375 Version 1 Nonce 3420561926 Block Reward 50 BTC Title: Re: How does a block have essentially no transactions besides the block reward? Post by: maaku on September 19, 2012, 03:05:26 AM I'll give you a hint: look at the timestamps/received-time of that block and the one before it.
Title: Re: How does a block have essentially no transactions besides the block reward? Post by: jgarzik on September 19, 2012, 03:15:49 AM Miners choose which transactions to include in a block.
A valid choice is "no transactions" [besides the required coinbase transaction]. Title: Re: How does a block have essentially no transactions besides the block reward? Post by: Severian on September 19, 2012, 03:40:49 AM Blocks 199462-199465 were all created within a minute of each other, sequentially. Is that a function of how busy the network is or is it a decrease in difficulty?
Miners choose which transactions to include in a block. A valid choice is "no transactions" [besides the required coinbase transaction]. I now grok the no transactions flag. Thanks. Title: Re: How does a block have essentially no transactions besides the block reward? Post by: jgarzik on September 19, 2012, 03:42:40 AM Blocks 199462-199465 were all created within a minute of each other, sequentially. Is that a function of how busy the network is or is it a decrease in difficulty? Random chance. Sometimes miners find a new block within seconds of the previous block. Sometimes miners find the next block an hour or two after the previous one. 10 minutes is only the average target. Quote Miners choose which transactions to include in a block. A valid choice is "no transactions" [besides the required coinbase transaction]. I now grok the no transactions flag. Thanks. Not sure what you mean by "flag" but ok :) Title: Re: How does a block have essentially no transactions besides the block reward? Post by: Severian on September 19, 2012, 03:50:30 AM Random chance. This makes me like this protocol even more. Quote Not sure what you mean by "flag" but ok :) Flag, option, choice, checkbox, click-the-thingy... Give a noob a break. :) |