What happens to the short chain when the nodes follow the long chain

Question

I have learnt that when two blocks are proposed to be the new blocks, and one of these blocks add another block to it (it becomes the long chain), the nodes start following the longest chain and abandon the short chain. When this happens, what happens to the short chain?

Answer 1

This situation occurs every day in the bitcoin network. When a longer chain is available, the nodes follow the long chain. The miner who proposed the other chain(short chain) will re-organize his chain.

To avoid dangers of chain re-organization, most blockchain exchanges wait for 3 or 4 blocks before accepting a transaction.