The timestamp of a block is not an accurate measurement. It can vary by several minutes and if blocks are being found close together, this can cause the older block to have a later timestamp than the newer block.
Since each block contains the hash of the block header of the preceding block, there is a mechanism in place that fixes the order of blocks.
Topic: Block creation time out of order? (Read 1106 times)
FYR: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Block_timestamp
Quote
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. "Network-adjusted time" is the median of the timestamps returned by all nodes connected to you.
This can happen if pool's clock is desynchronized.
Block timestamp checking in Bitcoin is somewhat loose.
Block timestamp checking in Bitcoin is somewhat loose.
Hello all. I am new to bitcoin, and I'm hoping someone can help me understand how the block creation times for certain blocks can be out of order. Here is block info from blockchain showing several blocks (in sequential order) with non-chronological creation times:
http://i650.photobucket.com/albums/uu229/ericisback1/2014-02-05_231248.jpg
Here are the same blocks on the blockchain homepage showing the "block's age" younger than the one above it (but the block numbers are in order):
http://i650.photobucket.com/albums/uu229/ericisback1/2014-02-05_231144.jpg
Can someone tell me how this can happen? Thanks for any help.
http://i650.photobucket.com/albums/uu229/ericisback1/2014-02-05_231248.jpg
Here are the same blocks on the blockchain homepage showing the "block's age" younger than the one above it (but the block numbers are in order):
http://i650.photobucket.com/albums/uu229/ericisback1/2014-02-05_231144.jpg
Can someone tell me how this can happen? Thanks for any help.
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