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Why Is It Taking 20 Minutes to Mine This Bitcoin Block?

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Re: Why Is It Taking 20 Minutes to Mine This Bitcoin Block?

#101

Post by modeless »

pjc50 wrote: post #87
modeless wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, it takes 10 minutes on average for a transaction to be included in a block. Potentially much longer if you are unlucky or didn't pay a high enough fee. On top of that most places won't accept just one block. The standard is 6 blocks, so 1 hour on average. That's the price you pay for a truly trustless distributed system. Still (much) faster than ACH or wire transfers or securities trade settlement.

.. but slower than contactless or other card transactions, and (usually) slower than Faster Payments. (Comparing to securities settlement is interesting, because cryptocurrency exchanges use off-blockchain "settlement" within themselves. Trades execute near-instantly because they're just updating a database. However, settling your money out of an exchange can take a lot longer)

> settling your money out of an exchange can take a lot longer

Usually only if there's something wrong, like a technical or KYC issue. In many cases it is possible to execute a trade and withdraw as fast as the blockchain (or your bank) will allow.

Re: Why Is It Taking 20 Minutes to Mine This Bitcoin Block?

#102

Post by eterm »

tobiaswk wrote: post #97

With bitcoin (not bitcoin cash) the difficulty is adjusted every 2016 blocks. If too many blocks were mined in this period the difficulty will decrease and vice versa. This means that many blocks could be mined faster or slower in this period. Until of course the difficulty adjustment occurs again. You use what is called the nonce in the block header. Each time you do a hash of the block you increment this nonce. If…

This article is completely independent of difficultly adjustment. The 20 minute average gap is a consequence of bitcoin mining being a Poisson process and the lack of memory property that follows.

Re: Why Is It Taking 20 Minutes to Mine This Bitcoin Block?

#103

Post by mnw21cam »

benchaney wrote: post #57
rjp0008 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is more than one solution to a block, so if someone does find it before you it's probably not the same solution. Making your head start worthless.

Adding to this. If two miners both discover a solution it is astronomically unlikely that it will be the same solution.

Given that two different miners will be setting the mining fee address differently, I'd say that it is guaranteed that they will have different solutions.

Re: Why Is It Taking 20 Minutes to Mine This Bitcoin Block?

#106

Post by mihaifm »

JeremyBanks wrote: post #55
fyfy18 wrote: post #50

Say you have 10,000 miners, once you find a hash you can start all your miners mining the next block. Can you use the time between blocks to your advantage? If you find the hash after say 6 minutes, you could delay broadcasting the block to the network for another minute or two, and give yourself an advantage. Yes there’s a risk another miner would find the same hash, but statistically you could estimate the optimal…

More or less, yes. This is a known minor weakness in the protocol. See https://arxiv.org/abs/1311.0243

Interesting. Any ideas if this is indeed a realistic scenario, or if it has been addressed yet?

Re: Why Is It Taking 20 Minutes to Mine This Bitcoin Block?

#107

Post by wolf2600 »

waytogo wrote: post #63

OT: From my perspective, HN is the reference regarding tech content. The upvoted stories, the comments, the discussions are of such a high quality. It's just the best resource to stay informed and educated in tech. Surprisingly this is not true with Blockchain topics. Upvoted Blockchain stories feel ok but not that relevant or often random. Comments, discussions are sometimes constuctive (like this one) but often ant…

> The upvoted stories, the comments, the discussions are of such a high quality...

http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/227/689/ef8...

Re: Why Is It Taking 20 Minutes to Mine This Bitcoin Block?

#108

Post by tgb »

Spivak wrote: post #32
hexane360 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you explain the multiple meanings you see in the question?

* What is the average time it takes to mine a block? * If I choose a time uniformly what is the expected time it will take to mine that particular block. The difference between them being that blocks that take a long time occupy more space on the timeline than shorter blocks and are therefore more likely to be chosen.

Doesn't "If I uniformly randomly pick a point in time..." uniquely specify the latter?

Re: Why Is It Taking 20 Minutes to Mine This Bitcoin Block?

#109

Post by GenericsMotors »

waytogo wrote: post #63

OT: From my perspective, HN is the reference regarding tech content. The upvoted stories, the comments, the discussions are of such a high quality. It's just the best resource to stay informed and educated in tech. Surprisingly this is not true with Blockchain topics. Upvoted Blockchain stories feel ok but not that relevant or often random. Comments, discussions are sometimes constuctive (like this one) but often ant…

> Surprisingly this is not true with Blockchain topics. Upvoted Blockchain stories feel ok but not that relevant or often random. Comments, discussions are sometimes constuctive (like this one) but often anti-blockchain or of low quality.

This is due to most blockchain projects being overhyped garbage.

The tech itself is also of questionable practical value.

Re: Why Is It Taking 20 Minutes to Mine This Bitcoin Block?

#110

Post by nicky0 »

fyfy18 wrote: post #50

Say you have 10,000 miners, once you find a hash you can start all your miners mining the next block. Can you use the time between blocks to your advantage? If you find the hash after say 6 minutes, you could delay broadcasting the block to the network for another minute or two, and give yourself an advantage. Yes there’s a risk another miner would find the same hash, but statistically you could estimate the optimal…

There is no such thing as a head start.
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