Marathon Digital, a prominent Bitcoin mining company, has acknowledged its involvement in mining an invalid Bitcoin block as part of an operational optimization experiment.
In a statement posted on September 27th, Marathon clarified that only a small portion of its hash rate was dedicated to such experiments, explicitly emphasizing that their intentions did not involve any alteration of the Bitcoin network.
Marathon was quick to assure the public that their experiment was never intended to tamper with Bitcoin Core, the primary software for connecting to the Bitcoin network and running nodes. Instead, the issue stemmed from an internal development environment within the company.
The incident took place on September 26th at 9:42 pm UTC, specifically on block 809,478, as reported by Mempool.space.
Various Bitcoin developers and BitMEX Research identified the root cause as a “transaction ordering issue.”
A Bitcoin developer known as “mononaut” suggested that Marathon’s mistake arose from reordering transactions based on ascending absolute fees.
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Notably, Bitcoin analyst Dylan LeClair pointed out that Marathon should have conducted such experiments on a testnet before venturing onto Bitcoin’s mainnet to prevent such mishaps.
Marathon expressed gratitude that Bitcoin, despite the unintended incident, continued to function as designed.
The Bitcoin network promptly rejected the invalid block and rectified the anomaly, demonstrating the robust security inherent to the Bitcoin ecosystem.
Cointelegraph sought comment from Marathon regarding the incident but had not received an immediate response at the time of reporting.
Following the incident, Marathon’s (MARA) share price experienced a 2.91% decline, opening at $8.01 on September 27th, according to Google Finance.
In summary, Marathon Digital’s experiment resulted in the mining of an invalid Bitcoin block, a situation they promptly rectified.
The incident highlighted the Bitcoin network’s resilience and security, emphasizing the importance of caution and testing in the ever-evolving world of cryptocurrency.
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