A rare two-block reorganization has occurred on the Bitcoin network, what does it mean?

The Bitcoin blockchain recently underwent an “unusual” two-block reorg.

Although the term “reorganization” may sometimes sound alarming to casual observers, this event was not an attack or glitch. Bitcoin’s decentralized consensus mechanism is working as designed.

Mining pool Foundry USA has won an epic multi-block race against competitors AntPool and ViaBTC, according to data shared by Bitcoin researcher b10c and visualized on-chain.

Lace height 941880

To validate the next block of transactions, miners are constantly competing to solve complex cryptographic puzzles.

The network temporarily split into two competing chains at height 941880. AntPool successfully mined block 941881. Shortly after, ViaBTC mined block 941882 on the same path. At the same time, Foundry USA mined its own version of block 941881. Foundry then also found the next block and created its own version of block 941882.

At this point, the network had two valid chains of equal length. The deadlock was finally broken when Foundry USA continued its winning streak with blocks 941883, 941884, and 941885.

Blocks mined by AntPool and ViaBTC were discarded and became so-called “stale” or “orphan” blocks. In total, Foundry USA achieved 7 consecutive blocks (941879 to 941885).

Single block reorganizations occur periodically. However, two-block reorganizations are much rarer. This means that the temporary coupling between the two chains lasted for an entire additional block cycle.