BSV Blocks Get Orphaned

A number of BSV blocks have just been orphaned with the network going back in history (reorganizing) by six blocks or more.

“Almost each time someone is trying to produce a very large block on the BSV chain, there’s a reorg. Just an hour ago our Blockchair engine has witnessed a 3-block reorg (I think that’s a record)!” – said earlier today Nikita Zhavoronkov, lead dev at a blockchain explorer Blockchair.

That record was broken a couple of hours ago when Zhavoronkov said: “Whoops! BSV has experienced yet another reorg, this time 6 (six!) consecutive blocks were orphaned (#578640–578645), this chain included a 128 MB block #578644. The network was basically stuck for 1.5 hours, and this shows that even 6 confirmations are not enough…

There were 3 very big blocks. They got orphaned by a chain of 4 blocks which later grew up to 6 blocks. The new chain was orphaned by the initial one when it grew back up to 7 blocks.”

Our screenshot above probably shows earlier huge blocks which were included in the network. The orphaned blocks do not show on explorers as they’re no longer part of history.

They were at one point, however, but apparently there was some sort of fight between miners or confusion, leading to this network disruption.

Why such huge blocks are being mined is unclear. They appear to be coming from BSV supporting pools, so this doesn’t look like an attack. Mere incompetence perhaps. Chris Pacia, of OpenBazaar and a BCH dev, says:

“This is basically exactly the problem the BU gigabock testnet identified. At sizes > 100mb the mempools were so out of sync that blocks were basically transmitted as full blocks.

BSV had ONE 128mb block and it caused a six block reorg. On the BU testnet sustained 128mb blocks caused a total breakdown of the chain where there were so many reorgs that every node had a different view of the state of the blockchain.

And would you believe barely a day goes by where the BSV supporters don’t mock me pointing this out as if it’s sooooo obvious how wrong I was.”

BSV has recently been delisted from a number of major crypto exchanges after Craig Wright and Calvin Ayre lawyers threatened a number of prominent cryptonians with a lawsuit. Ayre said:

because the world needs to know the truth now! All sides are treated fairly in UK courts so this should be welcomed by all. https://t.co/y65sqZE2Bc

— Calvin Ayre (@CalvinAyre) April 18, 2019