Stale Blocks

Stale blocks, also known as orphaned blocks, are valid blocks that were mined but not included in the main blockchain. This happens when two miners find a valid block nearly simultaneously, creating a temporary fork in the chain.

The network eventually chooses one path, and the other block becomes stale. While the miner of a stale block does not receive the full reward, it still consumes energy and contributes to the overall security of the network.

High stale rates can indicate network propagation issues. Minimizing these is a key goal for efficient consensus protocols.