Here's a recent-ish thread on that very subject: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/a-block-withholding-miner-267181
Specifically, this post by ckolivas.
Topic: Bitcoin difficulty question (Read 737 times)
Hello,
this is just a thought but as i understand in pooled mining everyone submits his (...or her) "golden nonces" to the pool which is kind of proof of work. To solve a block, you have to submit a nonce, where the difficulty is higher than the current network's difficulty. So, what if you find a nonce, check for the difficulty, and only submit it if the difficulty is lower than network difficulty, otherwise discard it. If everyone does, noone will find the block solving nonce, everyone is paid for the shares and the difficulty won't increase. (But the pool will run out of Bitcoins for payoff) Is this a possible scenario or did i get something wrong?
Thank you
this is just a thought but as i understand in pooled mining everyone submits his (...or her) "golden nonces" to the pool which is kind of proof of work. To solve a block, you have to submit a nonce, where the difficulty is higher than the current network's difficulty. So, what if you find a nonce, check for the difficulty, and only submit it if the difficulty is lower than network difficulty, otherwise discard it. If everyone does, noone will find the block solving nonce, everyone is paid for the shares and the difficulty won't increase. (But the pool will run out of Bitcoins for payoff) Is this a possible scenario or did i get something wrong?
Thank you
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