Questions tagged [timestamp]

Collects questions about the rules, precision, and utility of the timestamp in block headers.

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Bitcoin: Mine faster than timestamp and nonce value [duplicate]

So Bitcoin uses a 32 bit value nonce in the bitcoin header. This means that it takes about 4 billion hashes to run out of nonce values. There is also a timestamp in the Bitcoin header which is Unix ...
gbe's user avatar
  • 101
2 votes
2 answers
60 views

Is it possible to check latency of already approved transactions?

I am running a BTC core node and I would like to perform some experiments and analysis on Bitcoin transaction latency. However, I see that the method getrwatransaction returns an object with: "...
ted's user avatar
  • 21
2 votes
1 answer
96 views

Can a signed raw transaction's locktime be changed?

If I create a signed raw transaction with a locktime in the future, and give this raw transaction to somebody else, can they edit the locktime so that they recieve the bitcoin immediately? For example,...
Cannabijoy's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
100 views

Unable to use UNIX timestamp for locktime on testnet

I am trying to create a timelock transaction, but I am unable to use a UNIX timestamp on testnet. However, if I use a block height the transaction works. When I use a block height that is in the ...
Cannabijoy's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
83 views

Can Bitcoin work without Network Time Protocol?

After reading an article about the imminent retirement of David Mills, and the possibility that there could be some handover issues (imho just rumors), I wondered if the Bitcoin protocol depends by ...
Stefano Adriani's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
50 views

Hash publication - Bitcoin whitepaper Section 3 Timestamp server

In section 3.Timestamp Server of the Bitcoin whitepaper it says: The solution we propose begins with a timestamp server. A timestamp server works by taking a hash of a block of items to be ...
user1086516's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
458 views

Question about Bitcoin's Median Time Past

I was currently reading the book Mastering Bitcoin written by Andreas and was pretty confused about the concept called Median Time Past. Hopefully I can get some of your advice. From my understanding, ...
John Pham's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
258 views

Softening the 2106 hard fork

Following along the 2106 problem solution proposed in Will a hard fork be required to change timestamp fields? … Is it possible to start including this logic into newer versions of core (is it already ...
Jeffrawesome's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
70 views

Which time does timestamp given in the block explorer represents?

The time block header was constructed The time when block was validated? if 2, this means not only nonce is incremented +1 every time we have hashed block header but also timestamp increments and ...
Tesla Solution's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
157 views

Is timestamping needed for anything except difficulty adjustment

This question asks about the role of timestamping and this answer supports the assertion that the main role is block difficulty adjustment. On the other hand, the whitepaper claims that ordering ...
user516728's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
87 views

Is the Bitcoin Blockchain aware of time?

I recently learned about how the lightning network works, and one particular thing that I found interesting is that, to prevent fraud, the output for each commitment transaction contains a clause for ...
urban-jungle's user avatar
0 votes
3 answers
64 views

if the lower bound of a blocks timestamps is the median of the previous blocks, how can the network difficulty ever decrease?

according to bitcoin developer documentation the lower bound for a blocks timestamp is the median of the previous 11 blocks. and also according to the documentation the network difficulty is ...
stav's user avatar
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1 answer
146 views

UNIX END TIME January 19, 2038 - Will it affect Timelock nLOCKTIME smart contracts past that date?

So UNIX END TIME is January 19, 2038. What will happen then to the btc TX that looks at Unixtime for nLOCKTIME transactions? Will any Locktime transaction past that date, say to 2040 be an issue? Or ...
krogoth's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
317 views

How bitcoin miners choose timestamp in block header when mining?

I did a statistic about the difference between the first announcement time in the network and the timestamp in block header for blocks within 2020. Surprisingly, most (93%) differences are less than ...
sphpmp's user avatar
  • 127
0 votes
1 answer
756 views

What is the correct way to calculate timestamp for a Block(125552)?

I am just learning mining process. Today I learned that we have to find nonce for given block header. And for block header we need timestamp in UTC I took the timestamp data from below link of 125552 ...
V01's user avatar
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1 answer
123 views

Why is there no block time bias to <10min due to increasing hashrate?

Since the difficulty adjustment is based on a 2016 block window from the past, if we assume that the hashrate of the network is steadily increasing over time (up to temporary disturbances), why do ...
phinz's user avatar
  • 121
1 vote
2 answers
96 views

What would happen to Bitcoin if GPS/Galileo timing ceased to be available?

According to this web site, the timing from a system like GPS is essential to "financial networks [which] rely on precision timing for synchronization and operational efficiency." Is the ...
brethvoice's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
945 views

How strict are the Unix Epoch time validation rules?

According to bitcoin.org, full nodes have a strict requirement on the deviation of time within certain boundaries. The block time is a Unix epoch time when the miner started hashing the header (...
arshbot's user avatar
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2 votes
1 answer
436 views

Will a hard fork be required to change timestamp fields?

In the protocol there are multiple timestamp fields with varying lengths. For example a 4 byte unix timestamp would overflow in the year 2106. Will a hard fork be needed to deal with this issue in the ...
Chiru's user avatar
  • 141
1 vote
1 answer
224 views

Explanation of "Timestamp Server" section in original bitcoin paper

I'm trying to understand the "Timestamp Server" section in the original bitcoin paper. It feels overly short for someone without an understanding of cryptography. Is it saying? A block ...
tim_xyz's user avatar
  • 113
2 votes
1 answer
289 views

Can Taproot be used to commit arbitrary data to chain without any additional footprint?

A common way of committing some data to the chain is through an OP_RETURN with some hash. Doing this marks an output unspendable, but the output still requires some footprint (and cost) on the chain ...
Mark H's user avatar
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1 answer
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Input and Output of all funds in the same block?

Hope, someone can clarify this problem to me. Please have a look at the btc address: 1CRTSXJXa3LsaHwjTA5yTbqbyi6QituztX There have been 2 transactions so far. 1 input and 1 output. BUT: According to ...
bigbadwolf's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
442 views

Proof of Work vs. Proof of History

Can someone explain the context of what Nakamoto exactly meant with: "To implement a distributed timestamp server on a peer-to-peer basis, we will need to use a proof- of-work system..."? I ...
kallikles 's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
94 views

Can we look at how long it took to solve for the most recent block in the blockchain? (and how?)

For example, can we see, the latest block, somebody got lucky and solved it in 1 minute, but then the next block, nobody solved it until 18 minutes later? (and how can we see it?)
nonopolarity's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
310 views

what if the timelock is in the past?

I just started learning about bitcoin scripting and wonder: what if the timelock in CLTV is in the past? what if the timelock in nLocktime is equal to 500.000?
Newdude's user avatar
  • 53
2 votes
1 answer
225 views

Is a timestamp in bitcoin different than just the "stamp of time"?

In the "References" section of Bitcoin's whitepaper, Satoshi Nakamoto points to three papers that serve as inspiration for digital timestamping. When you read those documents it is clear ...
Curious's user avatar
  • 21
0 votes
1 answer
85 views

HELP ME WITH BITCOIN TIME STAMPS

OK, so I had several backed up .dat files on google which I put in opentimestamps I could see that these files had time stamp data... so I uploaded and *****below is what the results were. What does ...
burchbit's user avatar
2 votes
3 answers
768 views

Is there a way to see the precise time of when a transaction was sent out?

I'm a developer. I'm not really knowledgeable in bitcoin development, yet. Say, I'm using Electrum wallet. I share an address with someone. The thing is that I need this someone to pay a certain ...
 Leloucha's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
146 views

How to get the time when a block is received at a node?

Is there any variable in the bitcoind code that records the timestamp when a block is received for the first time by a particular node? To be more precise, for transactions, transaction information ...
Dragonboy's user avatar
5 votes
2 answers
252 views

Does Cryptocurrency really need timestamps?

Bitcoin is supposed to be a clock on it's own right so it always felt sketchy to me that outside time is referenced. Could bitcoin be aware of it's own block interval through something like uncle ...
veoex's user avatar
  • 51
3 votes
0 answers
192 views

Block 620826 is 1 second before block 620825? [duplicate]

How does that happen? Obviously the miner of 826 built his block on top of 825, but why is the time 1 second earlier?
ooomid's user avatar
  • 354
1 vote
1 answer
363 views

What does best block time mean in wallet.dat

I have a wallet.dat file that states: Best block at time of backup was 42603 (0000000013136bd812212959a15ef0ea0f084ee2c64e2f7f0e127d198f67a37f), mined on 2010-02-26T00:36:08Z Does that mean that one ...
burchbit's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
36 views

how the miner start to count the timestamp to insert in the block

I have a doubt, how the miner starts to count the timestamp to insert in the block. An example the timestamp insert inside the genesis block is 1/3/2009, 7:15:05 PM GMT+1. If the genesis block would ...
vincenzopalazzo's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
33 views

Is it feasible to prove the density of found hashes and could that be valuable?

Background When a miner claims a certain hash power and timestamps a block they solved, they are making a claim that a certain amount of time has passed since they received the previous block. ...
Dave Scotese's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
24 views

TSA: Why singing hash(hash(data),t)?

Why does a TSA first appends the timestamp and hashes the combination of timestamp and data? This product is then signed and send to the client back with the timestamp. Why not signing hash + ...
user674907's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
79 views

Retrieve number of OP-RETURN transaction

Is there a possible way to extract the bitcoin transaction protocoll with Python and extract specifically OP RETURN transaction? I want to plot the number of those over the course of time to derive ...
Nils2's user avatar
  • 1
0 votes
2 answers
119 views

How does this time-stamping system work?

There is an online tool called Proof of Existence which uses the bitcoin blockchain to time-stamp documents. I'm reading the documentation but I fail to see how it works. I understand that it adds ...
luchonacho's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
166 views

How do nodes come to consensus on whether a timestamp is valid?

From bitcoin wiki: A timestamp is accepted as valid if it is greater than the median timestamp of previous 11 blocks, and less than the network-adjusted time + 2 hours. If a miner submits a block ...
wass's user avatar
  • 111
0 votes
1 answer
687 views

Bitcoin Pro API - How do you format start/end time for Historic Data?

I don't understand how to format the start and end time per https://docs.pro.coinbase.com/#get-historic-rates The sample time is "1415398768" which makes no intuitive sense to me, and when I tried ...
Victor's user avatar
  • 21
7 votes
1 answer
2k views

January 19th, 2038: RIP Unix Timestamps

Is there a plan in place for when the inevitable 32-bit overflow of Unix timestamps occurs? How much will this impact existing blocks that are timestamped with Unix Epoch times?
apt-getschwifty's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
76 views

When update mining difficulty, Is the timespan of the past 2016 blocks approximated value?

I know how to calculate difficulty, and I know it is increased or decreased by checking the timespan of the past 2016 blocks. and I found actual code for calculating timespan: https://github.com/...
Hyun Seok Jeong's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
918 views

How does timejacking enable double spending?

http://culubas.blogspot.com/2011/05/timejacking-bitcoin_802.html I went over this blog, but I am still not clear how double spending is achieved by this attack. From what I read, the attackers submit ...
achu thomas's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
229 views

Network Time of Bitcoin

Bitcoin uses UNIX time for timestamp. Unix Time is really accurate. I want to know why there is a "70 minutes" offset is allowed in Bitcoin network adjusted time. Is there any distribution used to get ...
achu thomas's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
641 views

From where does the 2 hours limitation on bitcoin time stamp come?

Bitcoin wiki says that: A timestamp is accepted as valid if it is greater than the median timestamp of previous 11 blocks, and less than the network-adjusted time + 2 hours My question is why 2 ...
n0unc3's user avatar
  • 81
1 vote
3 answers
121 views

What prevents DoS based on near-valid block timestamps?

Upon receiving a newly mined block, the block timestamp validation is performed here: https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/master/src/validation.cpp#L3263-L3270 Q1: As for the second check (block ...
bgd223's user avatar
  • 151
2 votes
1 answer
805 views

How is PSZ Timestamp encoded in Bitcoin core code?

In Chainparams.cpp of the Bitcoin Core source, the encoded PSZTimestamp is as follows ...
Barney Chambers's user avatar
3 votes
3 answers
875 views

Why does the median-past time average the last 11 block timestamps and not the last 12?

As described in BIP-113. Wouldn't the last 12 blocks bring us closer to a one-hour offset (ie 120min, midpoint 60)?
Paul Razvan Berg's user avatar
9 votes
1 answer
1k views

What prevents similar time-warp attacks in Bitcoin as happened to Verge?

Right now (may 2018), Verge (an altcoin with proof of work) was attacked by time-warp attack. More can be read here https://blog.theabacus.io/the-verge-hack-explained-7942f63a3017 What exactly ...
Karel Bílek's user avatar
  • 2,655
0 votes
1 answer
246 views

Would mining future bitcoins break Bitcoin?

Assuming an Bitcoin miner with very much hashrate (like Bitmain) would decide to mine "future" Bitcoin blocks and provide them within very short time to the network, would this break Bitcoin?...
cyptus's user avatar
  • 103
1 vote
2 answers
81 views

What roles has the TIME information play in the bitcoin header?

What role does the time play in the bitcoin header? Is it ok to set it to 1 sec after the last block and never change it while calculating? Will the block be rejected when the gap is to large? If 2 ...
Fritz's user avatar
  • 113