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Topic: Six blocks in 11 minutes! Bitcoin on steroids? (Read 2774 times)

sr. member
Activity: 266
Merit: 250
This the reason why difficulty has been climbing month after month at an exponential rate. I blame it on too much hashing power on a single pool. I am happy I am not a miner, ROI seems further and further away.

Yup , new miner is really taking a lot time to cover their investment tho and it might take longer than just buying the bitcoin outright.

Most miners will never reach ROI and never will they. Miners have to pay for electric costs out of their mining proceeds, and when electric costs exceed their proceeds they will shut off their miners.
sr. member
Activity: 560
Merit: 250
This the reason why difficulty has been climbing month after month at an exponential rate. I blame it on too much hashing power on a single pool. I am happy I am not a miner, ROI seems further and further away.

Yup , new miner is really taking a lot time to cover their investment tho and it might take longer than just buying the bitcoin outright.
full member
Activity: 149
Merit: 100
Why the hell is it compared to anything on steroids?
sr. member
Activity: 266
Merit: 250
still means my coffee woulda been cold if a) coffee shop accepted bitcoins and b) waited for 6 confirms
but ya, 6 in 11 mins is not to shaby at all Smiley

Merchants that sell low value products like coffee could rely on 0/unconfirmed TX as it would cost a lot to attempt a double spend attack on a $5 purchase
legendary
Activity: 910
Merit: 1000
★YoBit.Net★ 350+ Coins Exchange & Dice
still means my coffee woulda been cold if a) coffee shop accepted bitcoins and b) waited for 6 confirms
but ya, 6 in 11 mins is not to shaby at all Smiley
sr. member
Activity: 266
Merit: 250
Yes, it all depends on how much hash is added to network in between diff changes. Steeper change, sooner it will get.

It has to do with luck as well.
legendary
Activity: 896
Merit: 1000
Just had 6 blocks within 16 minutes (ending ~17 minutes ago)

305463    17 minutes    395    2,273.73 BTC    72.83.147.125    243.36
305462    22 minutes    32    504.36 BTC    Polmine    14.85
305461    26 minutes    81    497.38 BTC    Slush    46.14
305460    27 minutes    35    469.12 BTC    GHash.IO    21.07
305459    24 minutes    432    46,996.86 BTC    BTC Guild    287.12
305458    33 minutes    128    101,239.74 BTC    Polmine    148.88

Obviously a few fast blocks is just from random odds.


6 blocks in 10 minutes has happened a few times before, just like 0 blocks in 60 minutes happens about once a month.  6 in 10 minutes is a bit rarer though.
Since DeathandTaxes did the math for the frequency of the OPs post, I couldn't help but do the comparison of this during one of my breaks at work. Hehe.

With ideal block propagation averages:

6 blocks in 10 minutes (i.e. P[X=6] for λ=1) once every ~13.6 days.
0 blocks in 60 minutes (i.e. P[X=0] for λ=6) once every ~16.8 days.

As a note the chances of 6 or more blocks in 10 minutes (i.e. 1-P[X<6] for λ=1) is once every ~11.6 days.

So it seems that 6 blocks in 10 minutes is a bit more common than no blocks in the expected time for 6 blocks.

So it is normal over twice (or even three times) a month?
Seeing the math is amazing thank you and DeathandTaxes for doing that.
Yes, it's normal for the six block thing to happen multiple times in a month. I know, crazy huh? That's the funny thing about probabilities and proportionality. When something has a .05% chance of happening, something in a lot of people instinctively think that is super rare. But over the scale of thousands of events such as a month of which there are around 4,300 10-minute events, that .05% event has an expectancy of occurring about 2 times.

As a side note, we would expect a 7-block event once every ~3 months, an 8-block event every ~2 years, a 9-block event every ~2 decades and a 10-block event ~2 "lifetimes" (about 187 years). Mind you though, this is assuming "normal" block propagation times (which we are running faster than at the moment).
legendary
Activity: 2114
Merit: 1040
A Great Time to Start Something!
Just had 6 blocks within 16 minutes (ending ~17 minutes ago)

305463    17 minutes    395    2,273.73 BTC    72.83.147.125    243.36
305462    22 minutes    32    504.36 BTC    Polmine    14.85
305461    26 minutes    81    497.38 BTC    Slush    46.14
305460    27 minutes    35    469.12 BTC    GHash.IO    21.07
305459    24 minutes    432    46,996.86 BTC    BTC Guild    287.12
305458    33 minutes    128    101,239.74 BTC    Polmine    148.88

Obviously a few fast blocks is just from random odds.


6 blocks in 10 minutes has happened a few times before, just like 0 blocks in 60 minutes happens about once a month.  6 in 10 minutes is a bit rarer though.
Since DeathandTaxes did the math for the frequency of the OPs post, I couldn't help but do the comparison of this during one of my breaks at work. Hehe.

With ideal block propagation averages:

6 blocks in 10 minutes (i.e. P[X=6] for λ=1) once every ~13.6 days.
0 blocks in 60 minutes (i.e. P[X=0] for λ=6) once every ~16.8 days.

As a note the chances of 6 or more blocks in 10 minutes (i.e. 1-P[X<6] for λ=1) is once every ~11.6 days.

So it seems that 6 blocks in 10 minutes is a bit more common than no blocks in the expected time for 6 blocks.

So it is normal over twice (or even three times) a month?
Seeing the math is amazing thank you and DeathandTaxes for doing that.
legendary
Activity: 1260
Merit: 1029
Yes, it all depends on how much hash is added to network in between diff changes. Steeper change, sooner it will get.
legendary
Activity: 1974
Merit: 1030
It will be earlier, I was just pointing to the current estimation.
legendary
Activity: 1050
Merit: 1000
How far ahead of the block schedule is bitcoin overall? Is it adding up over time to put us significantly ahead of schedule? Block reward halving going to come sooner than predicted before?

If blocks were found exactly each 10 minutes, we'd be expecting a halving in January 2017, however we're more going into August 2016.

It may be even earlier.

I would not be surprised if it happened as early as in 2015.
member
Activity: 66
Merit: 10
How far ahead of the block schedule is bitcoin overall? Is it adding up over time to put us significantly ahead of schedule? Block reward halving going to come sooner than predicted before?

If blocks were found exactly each 10 minutes, we'd be expecting a halving in January 2017, however we're more going into August 2016.

How far ahead of the block schedule is bitcoin overall? Is it adding up over time to put us significantly ahead of schedule? Block reward halving going to come sooner than predicted before?

http://bitcoinclock.com/

This will help you alot.

Thanks to both you.
legendary
Activity: 1918
Merit: 1018
How far ahead of the block schedule is bitcoin overall? Is it adding up over time to put us significantly ahead of schedule? Block reward halving going to come sooner than predicted before?

If blocks were found exactly each 10 minutes, we'd be expecting a halving in January 2017, however we're more going into August 2016.

More or less depending on the hash rate change until then Wink
legendary
Activity: 2968
Merit: 1895
...

ljudotina

Nice link!  Thank you.
legendary
Activity: 1260
Merit: 1029
How far ahead of the block schedule is bitcoin overall? Is it adding up over time to put us significantly ahead of schedule? Block reward halving going to come sooner than predicted before?

http://bitcoinclock.com/

This will help you alot.
legendary
Activity: 896
Merit: 1000
6 blocks in 10 minutes has happened a few times before, just like 0 blocks in 60 minutes happens about once a month.  6 in 10 minutes is a bit rarer though.
Since DeathandTaxes did the math for the frequency of the OPs post, I couldn't help but do the comparison of this during one of my breaks at work. Hehe.

With ideal block propagation averages:

6 blocks in 10 minutes (i.e. P[X=6] for λ=1) once every ~13.6 days.
0 blocks in 60 minutes (i.e. P[X=0] for λ=6) once every ~16.8 days.

As a note the chances of 6 or more blocks in 10 minutes (i.e. 1-P[X<6] for λ=1) is once every ~11.6 days.

So it seems that 6 blocks in 10 minutes is a bit more common than no blocks in the expected time for 6 blocks.
legendary
Activity: 1974
Merit: 1030
How far ahead of the block schedule is bitcoin overall? Is it adding up over time to put us significantly ahead of schedule? Block reward halving going to come sooner than predicted before?

If blocks were found exactly each 10 minutes, we'd be expecting a halving in January 2017, however we're more going into August 2016.
member
Activity: 66
Merit: 10
How far ahead of the block schedule is bitcoin overall? Is it adding up over time to put us significantly ahead of schedule? Block reward halving going to come sooner than predicted before?
legendary
Activity: 1260
Merit: 1029
It happens occasionally and it is probably due to GHASH.io's majority of the hash power (notice 4 out of the 6 are theirs).
No...it has NOTHING to do with where hash power is. On 1 pool or 1000 pools, it has absolutley  no effect. Hash power is hash power. It's all about hash power and statistical luck. As some said before, it happened before, it will happen again. Sometimes you get rapid ones, sometimes you wait for 1 hour to get 1....pure and simple luck. Nothing more, nothing less.
full member
Activity: 168
Merit: 100
Ghash is on steroids. Cheesy
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