How Does a "Chain Split" Occur and How Is It Resolved by the Longest Chain Rule? ▴ Learn

How Does a “Chain Split” Occur and How Is It Resolved by the Longest Chain Rule?

A chain split, or temporary fork, occurs when two or more miners find a valid block almost simultaneously, leading to two different chain tips. This is a natural part of decentralized mining.

The longest chain rule resolves this by having all nodes temporarily hold both chains until one of them finds the next block. Once a subsequent block is found, the chain it extends becomes the longer one, and the shorter chain's block is orphaned, with the network quickly converging back to a single, longest chain.

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