How does a traditional blockchain order its transactions?

A traditional blockchain arranges all blocks in a single linear sequence where every block points back to exactly one parent. This one-parent rule creates a clear ordering mechanism: every participant can trace the chain from the very first block to the latest one without ambiguity. The downside is that when two miners find valid blocks at the same time, the network must discard all but one — called orphaning — because the chain can only accept one block at each height. For a beginner, the key takeaway is that this simplicity comes at a cost: the strict linear design puts a hard ceiling on how many transactions the network can confirm per second.