Marathon Digital mines invalid block due to bug

Marathon’s error occurred at block height 809478, and Foundry ended up snagging the reward

article-image

Elisabeth Coelfen/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share

Even the largest miners and mining pools can occasionally make mistakes, as evidenced by Marathon Digital’s error early Wednesday morning.

The publicly traded company mined an invalid block. This means that Marathon submitted a block — which is made up of 2,000 transactions on average — that the rest of the network rejected because it didn’t align with common protocol. 

If the other nodes on the network detect an invalid transaction within the block, they can come together to reject using the consensus mechanism built into Bitcoin. 

Jameson Lopp, a bitcoin engineer and chief technology officer and co-founder of Casa, told Blockworks that Marathon mining an incorrect block doesn’t present a problem for the network. It’s more just a matter of forfeited profit. 

“It’s not a problem for the network, it’s only a problem for the money because [Marathon] gave up over $100k in revenue,” Lopp said. 

The issue with block 809478 was first flagged by X user @0xB10C, but BitMex Research pinpointed the error: Marathon misplaced two transactions within said block. This misordering led to the block’s rejection by other network participants.

Loading Tweet..

Marathon confirmed what happened on Wednesday afternoon in a post on X, formerly Twitter. The company chalked the mistake up to an unforeseen bug that compromised its development pool, not its main production pool. 

“We utilize a small portion of our hash rate to experiment with our development pool and research potential methods to optimize our operations,” the company wrote. “The error was the result of an unanticipated bug that came from one of our experiments.”

Loading Tweet..

The incident, it further explained, was “unintended” and not meant to alter the inherent rules governing Bitcoin Core, the original and most widely adopted software client used to operate nodes on the Bitcoin network.

Marathon also took this opportunity to hype up its view that Bitcoin is secure, saying that this “underscores the robust security of the Bitcoin network, which rejected and rectified the anomaly.”

This isn’t something that’s only happened to Marathon, however. 

BitMex Research flagged an invalid block seemingly mined by AntPool in July 2019. A similar occurrence was noted in April 2023 involving f2pool.

According to multiple blockchain explorers, Foundry was the one to ultimately mine block 809478 correctly.


Don’t miss the next big story – join our free daily newsletter.

Tags

Upcoming Events

Hilton Metropole | 225 Edgware Rd, London

MON - WED, MARCH 18 - 20, 2024

Crypto’s premier institutional conference returns to London in March 2024. The DAS: London Experience:  Attend expert-led panel discussions and fireside chats  Hear the latest developments regarding the crypto and digital asset regulatory environment directly from policymakers and experts   Grow your network […]

Salt Lake City, UT

WED - FRI, OCTOBER 9 - 11, 2024

Pack your bags, anon — we’re heading west! Join us in the beautiful Salt Lake City for the third installment of Permissionless. Come for the alpha, stay for the fresh air. Permissionless III promises unforgettable panels, killer networking opportunities, and mountains […]

recent research

Frax report cover.jpg

Research

Frax saw continued development in its frxETH liquid staking derivative and Fraxlend money market throughout 2023. Frax V3 introduces an RWA strategy to drive utility to the protocol's cornerstone product, the FRAX stablecoin.

article-image

Heron Finance caters to US accredited investors and uses Goldfinch credit markets on the backend

article-image

Bitcoin, up more than 160% year to date, has plenty of steam left in this rally, analysts say

article-image

Nova Labs will hope to grow Helium’s hotspot network to reduce backup coverage costs paid to T-Mobile

article-image

The LinkedIn posting states that the position would “support the Federal Reserve System’s [CBDC] Research and Development program.”

article-image

Both central banks are exploring the impact a CBDC could have on an economy

article-image

Neutron core contributor Dutheil notes this is “a period of consolidation” in the Cosmos ecosystem