Blocks

Block production endpoint reference, descriptions, and links.

Blocks are data structures that contain transactions and are added on-chain. Each block has a block header that contains the previous block hash, the Merkle Root representing the root of the Merkle tree, which includes all transactions in the block, a zk-SNARK proof, the block producer's signature, and a timestamp when the block was added on-chain.

Block producers are validators that produce blocks. The more stake a validator has, the higher the chances are to win block production. There's the Verifying Random Function that gives smaller validators more chances to produce blocks, too. For block production, validators get rewards with the Coinbase of 720 Mina.

Sometimes there can be a situation when two or more blocks compete to be added on-chain. This ends up in two or more chains emerging at a time. One of such chains gets prolonged and becomes the canonical chain leaving the others orphaned. The blocks in the canonical chain are canonical blocks, and the transactions they contain successfully ran. If a block enters an orphaned chain, it is then an orphaned block and is not added to the blockchain. The transactions in an orphaned block are all failed and they have to be rerun and added in a canonical block.

Minascan shows a list of canonical and orphaned blocks on the Mina blockchain.

The following endpoints are available for blocks on Mina on Blockberry.

EndpointDescription
getBlocksGet a list of all blocks (both canonical and orphaned) on the Mina Blockchain.
getLatestBlockStateHashGet the block on the highest block height.
getBlockByHashGet block details by block state hash.