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From my understanding, a SHA256 hash is generated by a miner and if the hash is less than a specific value, it is passed to its peers. That said, It's possible for multiple hashes to be created at very close to the same time. If this happens, how is the "winner" determined? I see this has happened a lot (multiple orphaned blocks).
What can be done by the miner to see that their block wins the race, either honestly or through an attack? The protocol stipulates that the block shall be recognized by which ever was received first. Is it advantageous to set up peering with other miners?
1Is there anything a miner can do to send his block out more quickly? Or to disrupt other miners from sending out theirs? – Ben – 2013-04-10T19:24:29.000
1@Ben: Being connected to many nodes and having a fast internet connection could help. I don't know of ways to disrupt other miners. – Meni Rosenfeld – 2013-04-10T19:41:38.800
3Can anyone explain the downvote? – Meni Rosenfeld – 2013-04-10T19:42:08.770
I am baffled by it. – Ben – 2013-04-10T21:56:21.513
1A block is first verified before it is relayed. So a block with fewer transactions will be verified sooner than a block with many transactions. However trying to limit that will cause fees to be missed, so there's an economic cost that offsets the economic gain. – Stephen Gornick – 2013-04-11T00:15:30.410
1Theoretically, miners could form a coalition that would agree to mine after each other's found blocks, even if the block was found later, so long as the chain was the same length. I doubt it would be worth the trouble, but it would give members of the coalition a slightly greater chance of winning against a block found by a miner not in the coalition. – David Schwartz – 2013-04-11T03:46:52.480
@DavidSchwartz: This sounds like the mining cartel attack (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2227.0;all). It requires the cartel to have at least ~40% of the total hashrate to work.
– Meni Rosenfeld – 2013-04-11T06:57:34.700@MeniRosenfeld: Very similar. I'm suggesting a much weaker version -- mine from the longest chain in all cases, but break ties between a cartel member and a non member in favor of the cartel member regardless of which block was seen first. – David Schwartz – 2013-04-11T07:00:21.630
@DavidSchwartz: Yeah, that is simpler. – Meni Rosenfeld – 2013-04-11T11:08:34.087