A candidate block is a temporary block created by miners to participate in the mining competition and validate the next block to be added to the blockchain. When a new transaction arrives, it’s stored in the memory pool and waits for the miner’s validation.
The miners collect and organize multiple unconfirmed transactions from the memory pool, process them to form a Merkle tree structure, and produce a Merkle root. This root represents all transactions included in that particular block. Miners compete with each other to solve the candidate block and receive the block reward.
In summary, a candidate block is crucial for miners to mine the next block in the blockchain and earn rewards. It contains unverified transactions collected from the memory pool and solved by miners. Without these candidate blocks, the blockchain cannot continue to grow and transactions cannot be validated.
FAQs
What is a Merkle root?
A Merkle root is a single hash that represents all previous hashes in a Merkle tree structure and all transactions included in a particular block.
Why do miners compete with each other to solve the candidate block?
Miners compete with each other to solve the candidate block to earn the block reward and add the next block to the blockchain.
What happens to unverified transactions in the memory pool?
Unverified transactions in the memory pool wait for miners to validate them by adding them to the candidate block and solving it.
Conclusion
A candidate block plays a vital role in the blockchain’s growth and transactions validation. Miners create, solve, and add candidate blocks to the blockchain to earn rewards and continue the network’s operations. Understanding how candidate blocks work is crucial to understanding the blockchain’s operations.
