Questions tagged [block-propagation-time]
31 questions
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How long does it take to propagate a newly created block to the entire Bitcoin network and why?
Once a new block has been created, it is propagated to the entire network. I’d like to know how long this would take “on average”.
The propagation delay can be from several causes, and I’d additionally like to understand which one is the most…
Aviv Zohar
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Mining pool performance optimization
What are the main components one should focus on when trying to maximize a mining pool's performance? Assuming the code is pretty optimal (there aren't any inefficiencies), what should a pool owner devote their attention or resources to? I'm…
ThePiachu
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Are there drawbacks to the Thin Block patch?
Mike Hearn talked about a patch he applied to BitcoinXT recently in his AMA:
I posted a patch last week that makes XT download blocks as lists of hashes instead of duplicating the transaction data, so a full 1mb block would drop to about ~70…
Murch
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How would faster blocks cause mining centralization?
I've heard that faster blocks would cause mining to become more centralized. How do these things fit together?
Murch
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5
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Block verification time
Does block verification time (by all nodes in the network) takes up a large portion of the total block propagation time?
What is the percentage, on average?
Danny
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5
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Can a miner remain anonymous?
Can you differentiate the miners from the normal clients, by doing some frequency analysis on ip-addresses that announce new blocks? Or will the new block propagate so fast around the network by normal clients that it's impossible.
Maestro
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4
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Why are mining pools not removing the 250 kb block size soft cap?
I might have misunderstood what is happening, but looking at the block sizes it seems that most mining pools are sticking to the 250 kb soft cap, with BTC Guild being the notable exception. There are many blocks that are just under 250 kb, so I…
user1874365
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Why not speed up block mining?
After reading Why is increasing block size in the Bitcoin network considered to decrease security?, I have a follow-up question about increasing block sizes:
why do we not reduce the difficulty of PoW?
If I understood correctly, this would speed up…
Thibault Santonja
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3
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2 answers
How relevant is the Chinese Great Firewall in the blocksize debate?
Mike Hearn said the following:
The reason the true limit seems to be 700 kilobytes instead of the theoretical 1000 is that sometimes miners produce blocks smaller than allowed and even empty blocks, despite that there are lots of transactions…
nelruk
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What is the difference between Compact Blocks, Thin Blocks, Xthin and Graphene Compression?
What is the difference between these block propagation techniques in terms of size / bandwidth & computation requirements and also compatibility & reliability?
All the above techniques try to prevent syncing data which is already available on other…
janowitz
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How propagation delay depends on the block size?
According the paper 'Information propagation in the bitcoin network'. by Decker and Wattenhofer.
For sizes larger than 20kB the cost can be said to be constant, whereas for small sizes there is a considerable overhead. Actually, I didn't get how…
Vijesh
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lower bound of block size towards increased speed of propagation
As far as I know there is an upper bound of a block, which is one megabyte, is there a lower bound?
It was in terms of a race condition that I was considering this.
Imagine you make a double spend and then you try to propagate a block that…
smatthewenglish
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What is the waste ratio of the overall network?
The answer to the question "Why do I have to wait 10 minutes before I can spend money I received?" in the FAQ of Bitcoin contains the sentence
"For example, if it takes miners 1 minute on average to learn about new blocks, and new blocks come…
Tom
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How could block propagation time be reduced?
This website measures block and transaction time propagation.. At the time of writing, the time required for 90% of surveyed clients to get a block is about twelve seconds. (I just averaged the last five days.)
How could this be reduced? On a…
Nick ODell
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Anyone successfully mining bitcoins in Testnet3?
I've been chugging away on multiple machines for days, and while I get a lot of 'unconfirmed' and 'orphaned' and 'immature' blocks, nothing lands in my wallet.
Anyone else having this problem? From the blockexplorer site, I can see blocks being…
user10215
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