I have just synced my ETH node (take that infuria!) !!! I am using Node.js to scan the blockchain for arbitrage, yet while watching my geth console, 2 blocks were published in close proximity with 0 transactions. How does this happen; is it just a random chance or are miners intentionally mining empty blocks to increase fees, as this article suggests (old article FYI)?
EDIT: forgot the link!
In the blockchain it can happen that they mine blocks with 0 transactions, it happened a lot at the beginning. I do not think it is a matter of Gas increase since if you see these two blocks 10701261 and 10701219 in used gas it indicates 0 (0.00%)
And for the price to be altered, transactions must enter by bidding with gas to increase or decrease.
If the network is active, what on the miner’s side would allow for an empty block? It seems to be a result of poor coding or intentional. Why wouldn’t you mine transactions, especially considering the high fees?
Perhaps some bad actors want the network to congest? They still earn rewards yet dissuade ETH activity… I really cannot think of another explanation.
It obviously happens often enough, but how and why?