Bitcoin Forum

Bitcoin => Electrum => Topic started by: .crypto on May 06, 2018, 04:15:37 PM



Title: Electrum timestamp of TX vs. Blockchain.info timestamp
Post by: .crypto on May 06, 2018, 04:15:37 PM
Sorry, already asked this question in the German section of this forum but didn't get any replies.

When I check a transaction in Electrum and i compare the data with blockchain.info I see that there is a different timestamp. The transaction in Electrum seems to have happened later in time and on blockchain.info it seemed to have happened earlier.

What is the reason for this?

Could it be that blockchain.info registers a transaction when it first appeared on the network (with 0 confirmations) and Electrum registers a transaction after 6 confirmations?

For me this is important due to tax regulations in my country  ::)


Title: Re: Electrum timestamp of TX vs. Blockchain.info timestamp
Post by: Xynerise on May 06, 2018, 04:24:59 PM
The real transaction timestamp is the timestamp of the block it was included in; that's literally the point of the blockchain: transaction ordering.
Using the time the node received the transaction makes no sense as different nodes receive different txs at different times, also, there is no guarantee that they'll ever be included in a block.
 However, the block timestamp is absolute.


Title: Re: Electrum timestamp of TX vs. Blockchain.info timestamp
Post by: Ayanamirs on May 06, 2018, 05:57:59 PM
Blockchain.info don't understand bech32(bc1) address.

You should change to a better block explorer such as https://www.oxt.me/

Try this and come back here.

btw, taxation is theft


Title: Re: Electrum timestamp of TX vs. Blockchain.info timestamp
Post by: Abdussamad on May 06, 2018, 06:04:27 PM
FYI timestamp in the block can be +/- 2 hours (https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Block_timestamp)!

Are you sure tax regulations require such a high level of accuracy?


Title: Re: Electrum timestamp of TX vs. Blockchain.info timestamp
Post by: .crypto on May 06, 2018, 08:03:27 PM
You should change to a better block explorer such as https://www.oxt.me/
Thank you for that link! The timestamp of Electrum and OXT.me is identical!   :)

btw, taxation is theft
I agree.  :-\


Title: Re: Electrum timestamp of TX vs. Blockchain.info timestamp
Post by: .crypto on May 06, 2018, 08:14:25 PM
FYI timestamp in the block can be +/- 2 hours (https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Block_timestamp)!

Are you sure tax regulations require such a high level of accuracy?
Thank you for your feedback. In Germany, if you sell a bitcoin you owned for > 1 year, there is no tax. So I have to prove to the internal revenue that I owned it for more than a year. My plan was to send them a link to a block explorer so they can find out for themselves, but if there are variations on the time stamp of the transaction I have to explain why. Just want to be prepared.


Title: Re: Electrum timestamp of TX vs. Blockchain.info timestamp
Post by: Thirdspace on May 06, 2018, 11:56:04 PM
When I check a transaction in Electrum and i compare the data with blockchain.info I see that there is a different timestamp. The transaction in Electrum seems to have happened later in time and on blockchain.info it seemed to have happened earlier.
---snip---
Could it be that blockchain.info registers a transaction when it first appeared on the network (with 0 confirmations) and Electrum registers a transaction after 6 confirmations?
Quote
Received Time      2018-05-06 23:20:30
Included In Blocks   521531 ( 2018-05-06 23:21:37 + 1 minutes )
above is taken from one of transactions included in block #521531 displayed by blockchain.info
when you look for actual transaction time, you should look at the "Included In Blocks" time which essentially is block timestamp
the "Received Time" is when the transaction was received/seen first time on the network for historical data

FYI timestamp in the block can be +/- 2 hours (https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Block_timestamp)!
most explorers show block timestamp in UTC time, a few automatically convert it to local time of the viewers
that "+/- 2 hours" is an offset from node-local UTC and not simply local time zone
people might misunderstood the offset time without reading more info on that link ;)


Title: Re: Electrum timestamp of TX vs. Blockchain.info timestamp
Post by: Abdussamad on May 07, 2018, 11:41:04 AM
most explorers show block timestamp in UTC time, a few automatically convert it to local time of the viewers
that "+/- 2 hours" is an offset from node-local UTC and not simply local time zone
people might misunderstood the offset time without reading more info on that link ;)

It's not about timezones or block explorers. The bitcoin protocol doesn't care to ensure the accuracy of timestamps outside of a 2 hour range. Your clock can be off by that much and you can still mine bitcoin.