Bitcoin Faces Two-Block Chainsplit: Here’s What It Means

Bitcoin, the world’s leading cryptocurrency, experienced a rare two-block chainsplit a few hours ago, as reported by BitMEX Research via Twitter.

Bitcoin chain splits are events in which the blockchain, the digital ledger that records all Bitcoin transactions, temporarily splits into two separate chains due to the simultaneous mining of new blocks.

These splits are typically resolved as soon as one chain becomes longer and heavier, rendering the other chain stale and leading to its eventual abandonment by the network.

While these chainsplits are not entirely uncommon, a two-block chainsplit is quite rare for Bitcoin. The last time such an event occurred was in November 2020.

However, given the recent increase in stale blocks, the chainsplit was not entirely unexpected. Stale blocks are blocks that were previously considered valid but are no longer part of the longest chain due to a reorganization of the blockchain.

In this specific case, multiple blocks were produced at height 788686. As new blocks are mined and reference one of these blocks as their parent, the heaviest chain survives, and the other blocks become stale.

Some explorers will forget the stale blocks, as the timestamp reported on a block is not necessarily accurate due to Bitcoin’s Block Timestamp Protection Rules.

Despite the rarity of two-block chainsplits, the cryptocurrency community remains largely unperturbed.