Post
Topic
Board Bitcoin Discussion
Re: What actually prevents the substitution of old blocks?
by
DeathAndTaxes
on 15/04/2013, 00:42:57 UTC
Each block has in its blockheader the hash of the prior block.  If you replace a block you would also have to replace all blocks after it plus an additional block for your modified chain to to be the longest.
So to change a block 10 blocks deep in the blockchain would require solving 11 blocks before the "good miners" collectively solve 1 otherwise your modified chain is still shorter and falling behind.

On edit: missed this ...

Quote
The replacement would, by design, have the same hash but different content - content that, for whatever reason, favors me as the attacker.

The odds of your producing a block with different content and the same hash is 1 in 2^256.    There isn't sufficient energy left in our star to accomplish that even given a planetary sized super computer operating at the thermodynamic limit for the next four billion years.