RATE Group | How Ethereum Mining Pools Validate Empty Blocks For Profit, Explained
44726
wp-singular,post-template-default,single,single-post,postid-44726,single-format-standard,wp-theme-bridge,wp-child-theme-bridge-child,ajax_fade,page_not_loaded,,qode_grid_1300,side_area_uncovered_from_content,footer_responsive_adv,qode-content-sidebar-responsive,qode-child-theme-ver-1.0.0,qode-theme-ver-13.3,qode-theme-bridge,wpb-js-composer js-comp-ver-7.9,vc_responsive
 

How Ethereum Mining Pools Validate Empty Blocks For Profit, Explained

How Ethereum Mining Pools Validate Empty Blocks For Profit, Explained

[ad_1]

Reports this week show that two mining pools, Etherdig and F2Pool, are publishing significant numbers of empty blocks and making a lot of money. While they’re not technically breaking any rules, their actions do present a security risk. Here’s how they might be doing it.

Apparently, some Ethereum miners are reaping significant rewards by validating empty blocks. On October 2, Alex Svanevik, chief data scientist at CoinFi, posted a Medium article with data showing an increasing number of blocks containing zero transactions. At one point in late September, almost three percent of validated blocks were completely empty. Also on October 2, Decrypt Media published an article showing that number has continued to rise well above three percent.

While three percent may not seem particularly significant, it adds up fast. Block time on Ethereum is about 15 seconds, which means there are roughly 5,760 blocks added to the chain every day. If three percent of those are empty, that means there…

[ad_2]

Source link