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Discussion on: Blockchain: What is Mining?

 
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Damien Cosset

I believe it depends on what blockchain we are talking about. For Bitcoin, the block that receives the needed confirmations is added to the blockchain. Because it takes 10 minutes to mine a block, there are no conflicts between different blockchains states.

In Ethereum however, blocks are mined a lot faster, so there can be some conflicts in this regard. I don't know much about it, but it is called the GHOST protocol ( Greedy Heaviest Observed Subtree). This is basically what you said in your comment. The longest sub-block chain wins and becomes the truth.

It all depends how long it takes to mine a block. If it's low, you will need a system to resolve conflicts like Ethereum does.