A Solution to the Rare Block Problem

The rare block problem occurs when there are a large number of mines, and each mine only receives a block infrequently, making mining revenue highly variable.

However, there is a solution to this. EarthBucks is not Bitcoin, and one of its biggest differences is that every mine is identified with a domain name, making it possible to measure the relative mining power of each mine.

A solution to the rare block problem is to distribute mining revenue to each mine in proportion to its calculated power over the previous two weeks or so (say, every 2016 blocks). This means each mine will need a semi-static payment address, but that is not a problem for privacy, because mines are already not anonymous, and their payments are totally public.

This means every mine that has been part of the network for at least two weeks will receive a predictable amount of revenue. The revenue will still be proportional to the mine’s mining power but smoothed out over time.

This is a simple solution to the rare block problem, made possible because EarthBucks mines are not anonymous.