how are orphan blocks different from stale blocks 
as mentioned previously many people call blocks rejected by the network orphan blocks in a familial relationship this is not the correct term because blocks are referred to by ancestral relationships for easy reference an orphan block would technically be a block with unknown parent blocks the parent child relationship in a blockchain stems from its database roots where data from the parent are included in the child blocks so that values are linked 1a block without a parent block is one with an incomplete block hash the block hash is an encrypted number and a snapshot of the complete blockchain at the moment the block was created parent block information would be included in this hash so an orphan block would be a strange occurrence in a network that relies on validation and verification of all preceding blocks an actual orphan block without any parental block information is likely a block that has been tampered with however for simplicity an unaccepted block is called an orphan block 