Block 817214

[Baofeng]

Anyone seen Block 817214?



It was mined by ViaBTC and it says:

Coinbase Message
/ViaBTC/Mined by wkr17b01/,z>mmB!vXE%z4$gZd&1i|hOKwGvKuO~l}P ouNpG5l

Very strange to see it though because as of late the fees are really very expensive.

Although this is not the first time that we have seen it,

https://www.blockchain.com/explorer/blocks/btc/776339 is also empty.

And as per mempool,

Why are there empty blocks?

When a new block is found, mining pools send miners a block template with no transactions so they can start searching for the next block as soon as possible. They send a block template full of transactions right afterward, but a full block template is a bigger data transfer and takes slightly longer to reach miners.

In this intervening time, which is usually no more than 1-2 seconds, miners sometimes get lucky and find a new block using the empty block template.

[DaveF]

It was mined within a couple of seconds of the block before it.

A properly configured pool with nodes all over the world that wants a bit of verification to be sure the block it's mining is good will mine an empty block instead of mining one that may be rejected.

Some pools will just go with what they have and risk mining an invalid block. Others will wait for a certain number of their nodes to agree. Do you give up the fees or risk the block? There is no proper answer, just an opinion.

-Dave

[digaran]

This empty block shows that even if we have large blocks miners could still include a block if found before they get the full data of the previous block, since they just need the block header and the hash of the previous block.

Well if miners care about a long lasting and strong network, they'd better start signaling for a change.

[apogio]

I am also adding this topic I had created for the same reason (another block obviously):

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5461283.msg62621166#msg62621166

[o_e_l_e_o]

And as per mempool

That explanation is wrong. In general, mining pools do not send the entire block to miners, since that is unnecessary and wasteful. They only send the block header, which is the same size regardless of whether the block is empty or full. That is all the information the miners need in order to attempt to mine the block. The delay comes from the mining pool verifying the previous block, removing all the now confirmed transactions from their mempool, creating a new candidate block, and calculating the Merkle root for this new block.

You can read my post in the thread apogio has linked above for a more complete explanation.

[hugeblack]

This empty block shows that even if we have large blocks miners could still include a block if found before they get the full data of the previous block, since they just need the block header and the hash of the previous block.

Well if miners care about a long lasting and strong network, they'd better start signaling for a change.

I don't know what you mean, but decentralization or large blocks has nothing to do with it, but all that happened is that the block was mined seconds after the previous block was mined, so the mining pool will not take the risk of waiting until transactions are added, and instead will broadcast the transaction to get 6.25 bitcoins. If you have the option of earning a guaranteed $5, or the possibility that you will win $10 or $0 , it is wise to take the guaranteed $5.

If we assume that the average fee is 4 BTC, then no one will risk the possibility of earning 6.25 BTC in exchange for earning 10 BTC or zero BTC.
If the average fee rises significantly above 6.25 then we may see fewer empty blocks.

[o_e_l_e_o]

If the average fee rises significantly above 6.25 then we may see fewer empty blocks.

We won't, because the incentive does not change.

If a miner mines an empty block, it does not make them any less likely to mine a full block in the future. It's not a case of a guaranteed 6.25 or gambling for either 10 or 0. Rather, they can earn 6.25 and still have the exact same chance to earn 10 from a full block next.

They still have the exact same proportion of the hashrate and the exact same chance at mining the next full block, regardless of whether or not they broadcast their empty block.

[DaveF]

I have also discussed this before but if done properly there is a lot of security hardware between the internet and your nodes and even between your nodes themselves.

With minimal security you can get the information from the public internet to your node very quickly. With DPI and some other security in place you can add fractions of a second to it in both directions which when relaying between your own nodes can add actual seconds to the time needed. For 99% of the things out there you will not notice. When mining BTC you will occasionally have an empty block like this. Still better then not securing your network and getting hacked.....

-Dave