The most popular cryptocurrency in the world, Bitcoin, just underwent an unusual two-block chainsplit, according to a tweet from BitMEX Research.
When two different chains of the blockchain, the online ledger that records all Bitcoin transactions, are simultaneously mined, this is known as a “Bitcoin chain split.”
These splits are frequently repaired as soon as one chain lengthens and gains weight, making the other chain stale and eventually leading to the network’s abandonment of it.
Even though these chainsplits are rather regular, a two-block chainsplit for Bitcoin is extremely uncommon. A similar occurrence last took place in November 2020.
However, the chainsplit was not wholly anticipated considering the recent rise of stale blocks. Stale blocks are those that were once regarded as genuine but are no longer a part of the longest chain as a result of a blockchain reorganisation.
In this particular instance, numerous blocks of height 788686 were created. The heaviest chain endures while the other blocks get stale as new blocks are mined that identify one of these blocks as their parent.
Since the timestamp reported on a block is subject to the Block Timestamp Protection Rules of Bitcoin, some explorers may forget about the stale blocks.
Even though two-block chainsplits are uncommon, the bitcoin community seems mainly unconcerned.
