What Is “Fee Sniping” and How Does It Relate to Transaction Prioritization?
Fee sniping is a malicious or opportunistic mining practice where a miner attempts to steal the transaction fees of a block that has already been found by another miner but not yet fully propagated and confirmed. It involves the second miner quickly building a new block on top of the first one, but replacing the first block's transactions with a higher-fee set from the mempool.
This practice is largely mitigated by modern consensus protocols and orphan block mechanisms.
Glossar
Opportunistic Mining
Definition ⎊ Opportunistic mining describes a strategy where miners or validators deviate from standard block construction practices to maximize short-term profit by exploiting temporary market inefficiencies.
Block Propagation
Propagation ⎊ Block Propagation describes the process by which a newly mined block is transmitted across the global network of nodes and miners until it achieves widespread acceptance and inclusion in the canonical chain.
Transaction Fees
Cost ⎊ Transaction fees represent a quantifiable expense incurred for processing and validating transactions across diverse financial systems, functioning as a critical component of network participation and security.
Consensus Protocols
Principle ⎊ Consensus protocols are fundamental algorithms that enable distributed networks, such as blockchains, to agree on a single, valid state of the system.