Bitcoin mining firm Marathon Digital recently mined an invalid Bitcoin block as part of an experiment to optimize its operations. The company clarified that the experiment was not an attempt to alter Bitcoin Core and they corrected the error as soon as they noticed the invalid block. Marathon attributed the bug to its internal development environment, clarifying that it was not related to its Bitcoin production pool or Bitcoin Core.
The incident occurred on block 809478, and several Bitcoin developers and BitMEX Research believed it was due to a transaction ordering issue. Marathon’s mistake likely came from resorting the transactions in order of ascending absolute fees. Bitcoin analyst Dylan LeClair suggested that Marathon should have conducted the experiment on a testnet before attempting it on Bitcoin’s mainnet. However, Marathon recognized that Bitcoin’s network rejected and rectified the anomaly, highlighting the robust security of the digital currency.
Marathon’s share price declined by 2.91% to $8.01 following the incident. The company’s experiment serves as a reminder of the importance of thorough testing and optimization strategies before implementing changes on a live blockchain network. Despite the mistake, Bitcoin operated as designed and displayed the resilience and security of its network by excluding the invalid block.