Timeline for Why is the longest block the one that gets accepted by all the nodes?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
6 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 28, 2017 at 23:54 | vote | accept | Dave | ||
| Dec 28, 2017 at 2:45 | comment | added | Murch♦ | @Dave: Timestamps are chosen by the author of the block and not necessarily accurate enough to be used as a tie breaker. The timestamp has fairly lose restrictions, it only has to be greater than the median time of the last 11 blocks and no more than two hours in the future. | |
| Dec 28, 2017 at 0:00 | comment | added | Dave | So to put a bow on this, if nodes disagree on which block they saw first, couldn't they just use the timestamp of when that block was formed? Or am I misunderstanding how timestamps are used when calculating blocks? | |
| Dec 24, 2017 at 16:58 | comment | added | Murch♦ | If everyone always picked the first block that would be perfect, however, it's possible that nodes disagree on which block they saw first. If two blocks are found at the same height at almost exactly the same time (i.e. less than two seconds apart), it is possible that both propagate to part of the network and the one found later gets extended first. Then everyone would start following the new longest chain which wasn't built on the first found. | |
| Dec 24, 2017 at 16:38 | comment | added | Dave | Thanks but its your use of the word "usually" taht is the basis for my question. Why not "always"? What bad things could happen if the system let the first node that confirmed transactions to win? | |
| Dec 23, 2017 at 3:58 | history | answered | Murch♦ | CC BY-SA 3.0 |