Over the past few months, we have seen an apparent problem in the world of Bitcoin mining. At that time, it became evident some pools are mining empty blocks. It now appears this issue is also present in the world of Litecoin. No one will be surprised to learn Antpool is mining empty blocks for both Bitcoin and Litecoin. Situations like these will eventually harm the Litecoin ecosystem, that much is evident.
Mining empty blocks serves no real purpose whatsoever. All it does it generate blocks which could have included transactions, yet don’t. For the Bitcoin network, this has been quite problematic, so far, with a limited block capacity and slow block times. Other networks can suffer from these issues as well, though. It now appears Antpool is mining empty blocks on the Litecoin network as well, for some unknown reason.
Antpool is Messing up the Litecoin Network
It is the same Antpool which causes empty blocks on the Bitcoin network. According to the pool operator, they do so “because they can”. That is a rather strange statement, as they are effectively hurting the network by doing so. It appears the issue is becoming slightly more apparent where Litecoin is concerned, though. For some unknown reason, the number of empty blocks on the network continues to increase. This is rather problematic behavior from the second largest LTC mining pool on the network, to say the least.
What is even more troubling is how Antpool mines more empty blocks than the rest of the network combined. It is rather obvious this mining pool likes to cause quite the stir. They are showing the same type of silly behavior for both Bitcoin and LTC mining right now. It is important for the community to be aware of this behavior, as it could end up hurting the ecosystem quite a bit. Empty blocks can occur at any given time, but purposefully mining them is rather strange.
Even though Litecoin now has SegWit active on the network, there is no reason to mine empty blocks. SegWit is designed to make the network scale and improve transaction throughput. It is now evident Antpool wants to turn things back to the way they were, despite having Litecoin active. Mining empty blocks will push transaction fees higher over time, which will benefit the miners. It is not surprising mining pools would use this method as a way to increase earnings.
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