<blockquote>
  <p>As I understand the bitcoin hash is generated from the ... previous block hash, ...</p>
</blockquote>

<p>So, the new block cannot be mined until the block it is building on exists. If a miner can mine so fast it does not have to wait to release blocks, it can just do so. The difficulty will then adjust.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-02T12:51:02.227Z
sure, but couldnt the miner mine his future blocks each on his own blocks because no one else is mining in this future timestamp currently? only the block which must bind his mined blocks and the blockchain must be mined very fast..?
cyptus
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-02T12:52:49.723Z
oh i got it, he could not even start mining - thank you :-)
cyptus
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-02T12:43:00.080Z
2018-05-02T12:43:00.080Z
Willtech
<p>Assuming an Bitcoin miner with very much hashrate (like Bitmain) would decide to mine &quot;future&quot; Bitcoin blocks and provide them within very short time to the network, would this break Bitcoin?</p>
<p>As I understand a block hash is generated from the version, previous block hash, the merkle root hash, current time, difficulty / target bits and the nonce. The Bitcoin network only accepts blocks for timestamp with max 2 hours in the future.</p>
<p>But what if a miner with that much power started mining for a future timestamp at which he assumes it would be possible for him to mine up to 2016 blocks (every block with a little increased timestamp) before the timestamp is reached. If this would be possible, the miner would only need to mine one more block when the timestamp is finally reached to bind the chain (the missing block for the previous block header hash) and could provide all his mined blocks a nearly one timestamp to the network. The target / difficulty the miner mines at would be a little be greater than estimated by him.</p>
<p>Wouldn’t the network increase the difficulty after this action by such an huge factor, that mining the next 2016 blocks would be nearly impossible?</p>

<mining-theory><hashpower><timestamp>
Would mining future bitcoins break Bitcoin?
cyptus
# Would mining future bitcoins break Bitcoin?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-05-02)

Assuming an Bitcoin miner with very much hashrate (like Bitmain) would decide to mine "future" Bitcoin blocks and provide them within very short time to the network, would this break Bitcoin?

As I understand a block hash is generated from the version, previous block hash, the merkle root hash, current time, difficulty / target bits and the nonce. The Bitcoin network only accepts blocks for timestamp with max 2 hours in the future.

But what if a miner with that much power started mining for a future timestamp at which he assumes it would be possible for him to mine up to 2016 blocks (every block with a little increased timestamp) before the timestamp is reached. If this would be possible, the miner would only need to mine one more block when the timestamp is finally reached to bind the chain (the missing block for the previous block header hash) and could provide all his mined blocks a nearly one timestamp to the network. The target / difficulty the miner mines at would be a little be greater than estimated by him.

Wouldn’t the network increase the difficulty after this action by such an huge factor, that mining the next 2016 blocks would be nearly impossible?

**Tags:** mining-theory, hashpower, timestamp


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2018-05-02. Score: 0 | Accepted answer

> As I understand the bitcoin hash is generated from the ... previous block hash, ...

So, the new block cannot be mined until the block it is building on exists. If a miner can mine so fast it does not have to wait to release blocks, it can just do so. The difficulty will then adjust.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: sure, but couldnt the miner mine his future blocks each on his own blocks because no one else is mining in this future timestamp currently? only the block which must bind his mined blocks and the blockchain must be mined very fast..?  
> **username_0**: oh i got it, he could not even start mining - thank you :-)  

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