Marathon Digital Rectifies Error After Mining Invalid Bitcoin Block in Optimization Experiment
Summary:
Marathon Digital, a Bitcoin mining company, acknowledged mining an invalid Bitcoin block during an operational optimization experiment. The firm asserted that it was not an attempt to alter Bitcoin Core and that the error was promptly rectified. The mistake was traced back to a transaction ordering issue caused by a bug in the firm's internal development environment. Bitcoin operated as intended by disregarding the invalid block, reaffirming the network's robust security. Following the incident, Marathon's share price experienced a 2.91% decrease.
Marathon Digital, a Bitcoin mining company, has confirmed that an invalid Bitcoin (BTC) block was mined as part of an "experiment" aimed at enhancing the firm's operations. Marathon noted in a Sept. 27 publication that only a small portion of the company's hashrate was used for these trial runs and reassured that they had no intentions of modifying the network in any way:"The goal of this experiment was not to change Bitcoin Core in any way," said Marathon, reiterating that they rectified the error as soon as they identified an invalid block. The firm explained that the mistake was due to an unexpected bug originating from one of their own.
The bug, according to Marathon, originated from their in-house development environment and was not linked with either the firm's Bitcoin production pool or Bitcoin Core — the major software used for establishing a connection to the Bitcoin network and operating a node. The incident occurred at 9:42 pm UTC on Sept. 26, targeting block 809478, as stated by mempool.space. Several Bitcoin developers, including BitMEX Research, accredited the invalid block to a "transaction ordering mishap." According to "mononaut," a Bitcoin developer, Marathon's mistake resulted from the transactions being reordered based on rising absolute fees.
Bitcoin analyst Dylan LeClair proposed that Marathon should have initially carried out this experiment on a testnet prior to attempting it on Bitcoin’s core network. Marathon, in reflecting on the episode, stated that Bitcoin "operated exactly as intended" by excluding the invalid block:“This incident, albeit unintended, demonstrated the strong security of the Bitcoin network, which detected and fixed the anomaly." At the market's opening on Sept. 27, Marathon's (MARA) stock price dropped 2.91% to $8.01, based on data from Google Finance.
Published At
9/27/2023 11:52:36 PM
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