Assume I figure out a way to pay 5+ ETH in gas costs for a transaction. Will this make my transaction the only transaction in the block because the block reward is currently 5 eth?
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1 Answer
No; by itself, the gas price only increases the likelihood of a transaction being included in a block. Unless your transaction also uses up the block's gas limit (which is distinct from the transaction's gas limit), other transactions can still be included. The block reward is independent of the fees for transactions.
You can think of it a bit like shipping things on a cargo ship that sails regularly (a block). There is a government incentive (the block reward, currently set at 5 ether) to sail the ship, even if it is empty. The shipping company (chosen at random via the mining process) selected can earn extra money by selling space on the ship. There is a fixed amount of space on the ship (block gas limit), so everyone who wants to send something via ship bids for space in the cargo hold (gas price). If you need to send something quickly or on a particular ship, whether it's big or small, you can in a high bid. But unless you actually fill the ship (gas used by your transaction), the shipping company is presumably going to try to maximize their profit by giving the remaining spots to other people that submitted buy orders.
This is also why, during periods of high demand, you need to specify a high gas price for a transaction to get included in a block.
