Propagation Delay’s Miner Gains and Taproot Key Handover

A recent Bitcoin Optech report examines how block propagation delay affects miner revenue and introduces a Taproot-based private key handover for collaborative protocol closure. The modeling study by Antoine Poinsot quantifies stale block rates as a function of propagation delay and mining centralization. Propagation Delay proves more damaging for smaller miners, while large operations gain proportionally higher revenue when blocks take longer to propagate. For example, a 5 EH/s miner’s annual revenue could rise by $100 k if propagation delays reach 10 seconds, amplifying net profit. In parallel, a new private key handover mechanism leverages Taproot and MuSig2 to streamline closures of two-party contracts like HTLCs. After preimage revelation, one party transfers an ephemeral private key, granting unilateral spending rights. This optimization supports fee bumping (RBF) and transaction batching without further coordination. Developers can adopt this feature for refund paths requiring single-party finalization, though it does not apply to multi-beneficiary protocols such as channel splicing. Key SEO Keywords: Propagation Delay, miner revenue, stale block rate, private key handover, Taproot, MuSig2, HTLC.