Bitcoin: Can multiple candidate blocks be mined concurrently by the miner, even if at the end only one block gets added to the chain every 10 mins?

The Conundrum of Concurrent Block Mining in Bitcoin

In Bitcoin’s consensus mechanism, miners are responsible for validating new transactions and adding them to the blockchain. The current algorithm requires a miner to select a block as a “candidate block” by solving a complex mathematical puzzle (proof-of-work) using special hardware called graphics processing units (GPUs). However, there is an interesting aspect to consider: can multiple candidate blocks be mined simultaneously?

To address this question, let’s break down the process step by step:

• Mining Process: Every 10 minutes, a miner retrieves the transaction pool from the “tx_mempool” table and processes it.

• Create Candidate Block: The miner uses special software (e.g. C++) to create a new block based on the transactions it has processed. This block is called a “candidate block”.

• Proof-of-Work: To validate the candidate block, miners use a complex algorithm that requires a lot of computing power and energy. In practice, this results in a single miner controlling the consensus of the network.

• Broadcasting

  : The selected candidate block is then broadcast to the Bitcoin network.

Now let’s address the question: Can multiple candidate blocks be mined at the same time? To understand this concept, we need to consider the following:

• Network Latency: When miners retrieve transactions from the “tx_mempool”, they get a snapshot of the current state of the blockchain. This means that all miners have access to the same data at any given time.

• Proof-of-Work Complexity: The Proof-of-Work algorithm is extremely complex, making it difficult for multiple miners to arrive at a single candidate block within 10 minutes.

Despite these challenges, let’s look at some theoretical scenarios:

• Network fragmentation

  

  : In a scenario where multiple miners attempt to mine simultaneously, the network may become fragmented. This occurs when different miners receive conflicting data from the tx_mempool, causing their calculations to diverge.

• Miner synchronization: Even if multiple miners attempt to mine simultaneously, they can still synchronize with each other through communication and coordination.

Conclusion

While it is theoretically possible to mine multiple candidate blocks simultaneously, this would require significant coordination among miners. However, the current consensus mechanism is designed in such a way that only one block can be selected as the “winner.” The probability of simultaneous mining is low due to network fragmentation, miner synchronization, and the complexity of proof-of-work.

In summary, it is theoretically possible to mine multiple candidate blocks simultaneously, but this would require significant coordination between miners. The current consensus mechanism ensures that only one block is chosen as the winner, making it difficult to imagine a scenario where multiple candidate blocks are added to the blockchain at the same time.

References

• Bitcoin Core [Documentation](

• Bitcoin Network Protocol Specification [RFC 2106](