<p>Random reorganizations of length more than 1 are rare. To get a fork of length 1, you need two miners find a winning nonce at nearly the same time. To get a fork of length 2, you need the same (1) happen right after a fork of length 1 and (2) have those miners mine on different sides of the fork.</p>

<p>However, such fork happen once in a while. See <a href="/a/4638">this answer</a> for some statistics. And even longer forks happen due to bugs in Bitcoin code, like <a href="http://bitcoinmagazine.com/3668/bitcoin-network-shaken-by-blockchain-fork/" rel="noreferrer">this one</a> in March 2013.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-10-01T13:08:11.643Z
2014-10-01T13:08:11.643Z
abacabadabacaba
<p>I'm wondering if anyone has collected statistics on how often reorganizations of side-chains with length 1 happen in comparison with lengths of 2, 3, or more.</p>

<p>Related: What is the longest chain reorganization that has ever happened?</p>

<blockchain><blockchain-fork><chain-reorganization>
How frequent are side-chain reorganizations of various lengths?
Brian Armstrong
# How frequent are side-chain reorganizations of various lengths?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2014-08-08)

I'm wondering if anyone has collected statistics on how often reorganizations of side-chains with length 1 happen in comparison with lengths of 2, 3, or more.

Related: What is the longest chain reorganization that has ever happened?

**Tags:** blockchain, blockchain-fork, chain-reorganization


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2014-10-01. Score: 6 | Accepted answer

Random reorganizations of length more than 1 are rare. To get a fork of length 1, you need two miners find a winning nonce at nearly the same time. To get a fork of length 2, you need the same (1) happen right after a fork of length 1 and (2) have those miners mine on different sides of the fork.

However, such fork happen once in a while. See [this answer](/a/4638) for some statistics. And even longer forks happen due to bugs in Bitcoin code, like [this one](http://bitcoinmagazine.com/3668/bitcoin-network-shaken-by-blockchain-fork/) in March 2013.


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