What ensures that the mining node doesn't maliciously try to fork the network?

[mczarnek]

What prevents the currently picked mining node from only confirming half of all transactions he picks up?

Or from packaging different versions of the block together and passing them to only half the network?

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[kendog77]

Even if a mining mode did this, the missing transactions would be included in future blocks mined by other miners. Considering that miners get paid in BTC for mining, I'm not sure why they would want to maliciously attack the network. That would be kind of like trying to cut off your nose to spite your face.

Also note that thansactions with very low or no fees attached are routinely left out of blocks for hours or even days, so this is not a new concept. Most miners will include a transaction if it includes a reasonable fee.

[kjj]

"picked"?

[grau]

What prevents the currently picked mining node from only confirming half of all transactions he picks up?

I think you misunderstand mining. It is not the miner picked by the network, but miner tries to pick the lucky number that makes his block legit. Miner are free to include whatever subset of valid unconfirmed transactions they like. The next lucky miner will pick out of the leftover and new ones.

Or from packaging different versions of the block together and passing them to only half the network?

You also misunderstand peer-to-peer networking. You can not pass something to "half of the network". Any message sent will most likely reach the entire network. The sender has no limiting control on the propagation, he can only make it more likely to propagate by distributing it to more peers at his own.