4 questions for better understanding

Question

hi,

I am researching the possibilities with blockchain / Multichain and for better understanding I have these questions (at the moment):

1. when there are no transactions, what will be included in the blocks when block time is say, 60 seconds? just the reference to the previous block and the nonce?

2. I have an old Bitmain Antminer S9i with 13,5TH/s lying around. When I change Multichain to POW, could I simulate a 51% attack with that on Multichain?

3. When I implement the API in my application for accessing Multichain – would it also work 1:1 for the Bitcoin network, as Multichain is based on Bitcoin Core? If yes, for that to work I'd have to run the main bitcoind service and connect to it over the API?

4. How is mining working (even with proof-of-auth)? The node that has its turn in the round-robin scheduler just hashes the block with whatever nonce and thats the hash value the next block will reference?

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Even if a block contains no transactions, it still contains important data to maintain the integrity of the chain. Such an ‘empty’ block includes: a reference to the previous block (hash pointer), a nonce (a number used to perform a proof of work), a timestamp (indicating when the block was created), metadata (e.g., block height), and, in the case of some blockchains, a standard coinbase transaction to award the miner. This ensures chain continuity and protocol rules are followed even if there are no user transactions.