Why can't the miner use the PoW for the orphaned block to create a completely new block to add to the current longest chain? If that PoW hasn't been used in the current chain, then surely it can be retried.
Part of the data that is hashed in order to find a valid block is the reference to the previous block in the chain. If you change that in an orphaned block the hash is different and very likely no longer valid (in terms of difficulty).
Thanks for that explanation. I think I understand now. Bit of a bummer to do all that work and lose it because you were a micro-second too late, but I guess that's life.
It's really the only way non-centralized mining can work.
And being a micro-second two late doesn't mean your block won't get used, it really only depends upon which of the blocks the next block chose.
So you can solve the block after I solved the block but because the miner to solve the next block didn't get my block but got yours instead, yours is the one the network chooses.
Just like real mining, some like is always involved,
