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Questions tagged [timestamp]

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

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2 answers
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How many blocks per second can sustainably be created using a time warp attack?

In a time warp attack, an attacker can reduce proof of work difficulty to its minimum, which allows even a single piece of modern mining equipment to create large numbers of blocks per second. ...
David A. Harding's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
125 views

Can a block more than a week old be considered a valid chain tip?

I recently encountered an assertion about this and I have been trying to get to the bottom of it. It's well-known that Bitcoin blocks have timestamps and that there are certain requirements they need ...
Bolton Bailey's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
151 views

What does the block time represent?

I've always been under the impression that a block's timestamp represents the second at which a block was found. For this to be true, it would seem that the time header field must be modified along ...
user49396's user avatar
  • 245
2 votes
1 answer
70 views

What is the difference between the Time and Mtime fields?

Could anybody please tell me the difference between these two fields? time mtime Thanks in advance!
Javier's user avatar
  • 21
2 votes
1 answer
102 views

What determines the block's timestamp?

As a miner, what happens if I propogate a block with a future timestamp, or yesterday's timestamp? What determines the block time? Can I just give any time here or is it okay to change it with 1-2 ...
Efe's user avatar
  • 407
4 votes
1 answer
164 views

Why isn't the upper bound (+2h) on the block timestamp set as a consensus rule?

Why isn't the +2h acceptance rule part of the consensus? Of course, then it couldn't be based on network-adjusted time + 2h because, in edge cases, one part of the network might accept something while ...
LeaBit's user avatar
  • 990
1 vote
1 answer
204 views

How exactly is the timestamp calculated for the +2h acceptance rule and do I have to implement it in my Bitcoin node for the node to still be valid?

In recent times, I have read many articles and questions/answers on bitcoin.stackexchange related to the timestamp, but I still have problems understanding certain things. They are related to the ...
LeaBit's user avatar
  • 990
1 vote
1 answer
108 views

Using Bitcoin as a trusted clock?

I'm looking for a way that a computer could get a rough estimate of the current date and time with a very high confidence level, for example in order to verify the expiry of a contract by means of a ...
aleph2's user avatar
  • 111
1 vote
0 answers
73 views

How to determine broadcast timestamp and confirmation timestamp for a given transaction id?

Given a transaction ID, how can I get: The timestamp that the transaction was first broadcast The timestamp that the transaction was first confirmed In this case, I sent the transaction -- so I have ...
Michael Altfield's user avatar
0 votes
2 answers
159 views

Miners setting timestamps up to 2h into the Future

When a miner adds the Timestamp to a block template, it must satisfy two conditions: Timestamp must be greater than the Median Timestamp of the previous 11 blocks Timestamp must be less than its ...
sha2fiddy's user avatar
2 votes
3 answers
324 views

Would a series of reorgs cause Bitcoin to break because of the 2-hour block time difference restriction?

Imagine there are a series of reorgs happening because of maybe some fee sniping event or something else, doesn't matter. If that happens for over than 2 hours, then new blocks will not be able to ...
fiatjaf's user avatar
  • 631
2 votes
2 answers
67 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
127 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
121 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
150 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
59 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
622 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
383 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
1 vote
1 answer
105 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
197 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
110 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
91 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
  • 125
2 votes
1 answer
176 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
  • 23
4 votes
1 answer
392 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
  • 137
0 votes
1 answer
1k 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
  • 3
0 votes
1 answer
129 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
114 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 ...
tdMJN6B2JtUe's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
1k 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
  • 1,808
4 votes
1 answer
633 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
  • 181
1 vote
1 answer
307 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
335 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
  • 3,334
0 votes
1 answer
60 views

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
468 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
133 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
338 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
298 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
97 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
2k 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
184 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
269 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
193 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
423 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
42 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
37 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
93 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
130 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
2 votes
1 answer
235 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
  • 121
0 votes
1 answer
706 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