CBP Bitcoin Mining and Consensus Mechanisms 5

Question 1

What is the 'coinbase maturity' rule in Bitcoin?

Accepted Answer

Newly minted coinbase outputs cannot be spent until 100 confirmations have passed

Answer

Coinbase outputs are unspendable for 100 blocks after they are created, protecting against chain reorganizations that could invalidate miner rewards.

Question 2

What is the relationship between hashrate and difficulty in Bitcoin?

Accepted Answer

Difficulty increases as hashrate increases to maintain the ~10-minute block interval

Answer

Every 2,016 blocks, the protocol raises difficulty if blocks were found faster than 10 minutes, keeping average block time constant as global hashrate grows.

Question 3

Which component of Bitcoin mining hardware directly performs SHA-256 hashing computations?

Accepted Answer

The hashing chip (ASIC die)

Answer

The ASIC die contains thousands of SHA-256 hashing engines that perform the double-SHA256 computations required to find valid block hashes.

Question 4

What is 'orphaned block' (also called a stale block) in Bitcoin?

Accepted Answer

A valid block that is not part of the main chain because another chain has more work

Answer

An orphaned block is a validly solved block that loses the race to be included in the heaviest chain when two miners find blocks nearly simultaneously.

Question 5

What does the acronym 'PPLNS' stand for in mining pool payout schemes?

Accepted Answer

Pay Per Last N Shares

Answer

PPLNS (Pay Per Last N Shares) distributes block rewards among miners based on their shares submitted in a sliding window, rewarding consistent long-term contributors.

(CBP) Certified Bitcoin Professional Practice Test

(CBP) Certified Bitcoin Professional Practice Test

CBP Bitcoin Mining and Consensus Mechanisms 5