LogFAQs > #891834294

A few more points.

What happens if there are two blocks mined at the same time. Well the new miners have to choose one of those blocks to point their next block at. When the next block is mined it can only point at one block so the other block will be discarded by the network in favor of the longer chain of blocks. The longer chain takes more work (more hashing) to create so it is the more valid block. This is why you wait till your transaction is several blocks back in the chain to ensure it actually cleared and was posted in the ledger.

The protocol wants to maintain a block every ten minutes. But if more and more people are mining, and especially if they combine their mining power (by using the same set of transactions and the same wallet for the mining rewards and splitting up nonce values between each other) they can create blocks at quicker rates.

So the protocol routinely checks (every 2016 blocks) how much time is passing between block generation. If blocks are being created more often than every ten minutes, the difficulty is increased by decreasing the target hash value. If blocks are being generated less often than every ten minutes, the difficulty is decreased by increasing the target number. So despite there being hundreds of miners working together in coalitions to mine these blocks, the difficulty is maintained at ten minutes per block

I think bitcoin is intriguing, but I see this increased mining effort as a wasteful use of electricity and computer hardware. Graphics card prices are rising as a result, and graphics cards that have been run non-stop for a couple years hashing blocks are then being resold to recoup the hardware investment to reinvest in faster hardware. These worn out cards potentially have little life left in them after being put through the wear and tear of perpetual mining.


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The only reason lightning never strikes in the same place twice, is that the same place isn't there the second time.