3 Consecutive Empty Blocks Alert - DEPRECATED

THIS ENDPOINT HAS BEEN DEPRECATED AND WILL NO LONGER BE ACTIVELY MAINTAINED, UPDATED OR SUPPORTED

Alert Definition

Alerts if 3 consecutive blocks were produced with no user-generated transactions within. This alert could indicate issues with relayers or MEV economics as well as indicate wider spread issues with validators not being able to propose blocks in a timely manner.

Dictionary

Name	AlertID	Category	Sub-category	Type	Unit	Interval
3 Consecutive Empty Blocks Alert	3b_consecutive_empty_blocks_hi	Alert	Blockchain Alerts	Sum	Empty Block Count	Ad-hoc

Interpretation

In Proof-of-Stake, validators are known ahead of time and can collude to produce empty blocks. Their motivation would be to exacerbate pricing discrepancies in DeFi so that higher arbitrage opportunities emerge. This activity is part of a broader theme called Maximum Extractable Value (MEV).

In Proof-of-Work, mining is a Poisson process whereby it is impossible to authoritatively predict who the miner or the composition of the next block. If two consecutive blocks are empty, it might be a sign of selfish mining and might lead to network disruptions, such as the increase of feerates.

Potential Root Causes

In Proof-of-Stake, this can be caused by a type of MEV attack, or by a severe bug preventing validators from sourcing transactions.

In less popular networks, there might be a severe lack of demand for block space. In other words, no users are utilizing the network.

Asset Coverage

Ethereum (ETH)