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I'm kind of confused why the timestamp of a block is different when checking different block explorers. I think normally this is the time the block was found, no? So, when I check a transaction in blockchain.info, it has a different timestamp then blockexplorer.com. The difference in this case in 1 hr and 5 minutes. Any ideas why?

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    Can you post screenshots and IDs? Are you talking about blocks or transactions? Are you talking about the actual timestamp in the block, or the time that the explorer received it (some list both)? Finally note that blockchain.info appears to show times in UTC while blockexplorer.com tries to use your local time zone.
    – Nate Eldredge
    Oct 26, 2016 at 12:25
  • Check postimg.org/image/y06qca7sd/and postimg.org/image/ukpwqy1pd Ok, since blockexplorer uses local time and blockchain.info UTC, there's still a gap of 5'.
    – mvanderbilt
    Oct 26, 2016 at 12:30
  • Can you also give the transaction ID here? Can't copy and paste from a screenshot.
    – Nate Eldredge
    Oct 26, 2016 at 12:44
  • tx 8165e70d1904c4b8e10eaf1029ab2ced0134e09f2e4212df3ae4ba2097c02874
    – mvanderbilt
    Oct 26, 2016 at 13:19

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Both explorers show two different time stamps. "Received time" is the time that the transaction was first seen by the block explorer (relayed over the peer-to-peer network). "Mined time" (shown by blockchain.info under "Included in Blocks") is the timestamp of the block in which the transaction was included. You'll note that both explorers agree about the mined time as being 12:05:22 UTC (note blockexplorer.com is displaying it in your local time zone, which I guess is UTC+1).

For received time, blockchain.info shows 12:00:17 while blockexplorer.com shows 12:05:22 (same as mined time). So one possibility is that the transaction was actually created and posted to the peer-to-peer network at 12:00:17 (or earlier), and blockchain.info received it over the network at that time. But for whatever reason, the transaction didn't make it to blockexplorer.com over the network; it didn't see the transaction until it got the block in which the transaction was included.

It's hard to guess why that would happen. But it appears from the screenshot that this might be a non-standard transaction, which most nodes will not relay. Maybe blockchain.info is better connected to those few nodes which will relay them.

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  • The tx id is 8165e70d1904c4b8e10eaf1029ab2ced0134e09f2e4212df3ae4ba2097c02874 After checking some explorer I find blocktrail.com the most accurate one because it shows a "Relay time" with Timezone. When clicking on the Block link there is Block Arrival Time and Block Time.
    – mvanderbilt
    Oct 26, 2016 at 13:19
  • It's an Electrum tx I did myself (?!) Weird it has more charachters then normal ...
    – mvanderbilt
    Oct 26, 2016 at 13:25
  • @mvanderbilt: It looks like some weird non-printing characters are embedded.
    – Nate Eldredge
    Oct 26, 2016 at 13:25
  • Double checked in Electrum, it still corresponds...
    – mvanderbilt
    Oct 26, 2016 at 13:28
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The difference in this case in 1 hr and 5 minutes. Any ideas why?

bc.i has a bug and always shows Timestamp equal to Received Time

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