<p>There is virtually no "empty blocks".  All blocks except the genesis block is actually headed by the hash of preceding block and then followed by the miners reward of the previous block in terms of the first transaction of the current block.  Therefore there should always be at least one transaction.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-03T10:34:39.700Z
2014-02-03T10:34:39.700Z
James Fung
<p>That's like asking "what will banks do if no one spends money, no one takes out loans, and everyone shreds their credit cards".</p>

<p>;p</p>

<p>I would assume JPMorgan in that situation would shut its financial servers down to save electricity.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-03T07:34:06.443Z
2014-02-03T07:34:06.443Z
Dre4dwolf
<p>They would mine empty blocks. Block difficulty would remain the same.</p>

<p>Would they have an incentive to mine blocks? In the year 2140, all mining rewards will be from fees. If there are no transactions, there are no fees. Between now and then, rewards will step down over time. So either:</p>

<ol>
<li>Clients will keep mining.</li>
<li>Clients will stop mining because there are no transactions.</li>
</ol>

<p>I recognize that this is a useless answer (maybe they will, maybe they won't) but I hope you understand the difficulty of predicting what mining clients will be like in 5-10 years.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-08-12T12:54:02.150Z
"They would mine empty blocks."  Is all i was looking for.. But that also leads me to: Would miners still have a hash rate when mining "empty blocks"? Would the answer be different post block rewards?
markjwill
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-08-12T17:40:18.300Z
In order: Yes. Yes.
Nick ODell
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-08-11T03:24:17.000Z
2013-08-11T03:29:29.897Z
2013-08-11T03:29:29.897Z
Nick ODell
<p>This question is similar to a few others, but I haven't gotten seen a clear answer anywhere.  It came up as I was trying to explain mining to a newcomer.  And he asked: "If aliens came and put all humans to sleep ( and any automated transactions that may have been setup ) would miners have anything to do?"  </p>

<p>So the question is, if zero transactions are happening, are miners still mining? And if yes, what exactly are they doing?</p>

<p>I explained also that eventually block rewards will end, so I'm looking for an answer that is agnostic of the bitcoin network now vs the post-block rewards bitcoin network ( after the 21 million are "mined" )</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-03T23:51:58.613Z
related: https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/10795/can-a-block-ever-be-empty
Murch
<mining-reward><empty-blocks>
If there was a period of time with no transactions, what would miners have to do?
markjwill
# If there was a period of time with no transactions, what would miners have to do?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2013-08-09)

This question is similar to a few others, but I haven't gotten seen a clear answer anywhere. It came up as I was trying to explain mining to a newcomer. And he asked: "If aliens came and put all humans to sleep ( and any automated transactions that may have been setup ) would miners have anything to do?"

So the question is, if zero transactions are happening, are miners still mining? And if yes, what exactly are they doing?

I explained also that eventually block rewards will end, so I'm looking for an answer that is agnostic of the bitcoin network now vs the post-block rewards bitcoin network ( after the 21 million are "mined" )

**Tags:** mining-reward, empty-blocks

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: related: https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/10795/can-a-block-ever-be-empty  

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## 3 answers

### Answer by username_4 on 2013-08-11. Score: 5 | Accepted answer

They would mine empty blocks. Block difficulty would remain the same.

Would they have an incentive to mine blocks? In the year 2140, all mining rewards will be from fees. If there are no transactions, there are no fees. Between now and then, rewards will step down over time. So either:

1. Clients will keep mining.
2. Clients will stop mining because there are no transactions.

I recognize that this is a useless answer (maybe they will, maybe they won't) but I hope you understand the difficulty of predicting what mining clients will be like in 5-10 years.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: "They would mine empty blocks."  Is all i was looking for.. But that also leads me to: Would miners still have a hash rate when mining "empty blocks"? Would the answer be different post block rewards?  
> **username_4**: In order: Yes. Yes.  

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### Answer by username_2 on 2014-02-03. Score: 4

There is virtually no "empty blocks". All blocks except the genesis block is actually headed by the hash of preceding block and then followed by the miners reward of the previous block in terms of the first transaction of the current block. Therefore there should always be at least one transaction.


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### Answer by username_3 on 2014-02-03. Score: 0

That's like asking "what will banks do if no one spends money, no one takes out loans, and everyone shreds their credit cards".

;p

I would assume JPMorgan in that situation would shut its financial servers down to save electricity.


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