Bitcoin Forum

Now I know that the 10-min per block is only an average number, but still, this looks quite rare and unusual:

https://i.imgur.com/H0ELREz.png

By the way, does anyone know how far behind or ahead we are of the expected height?

The data is still pending there since you posted this, It means that you will get 6 Blocks in 1 HR which is 6 Blocks in 60 Minutes
Block Discovered and Mined and Paid is different. Discovering block could be in same time for 5-7 Blocks but it will take 10 Minutes to be mined the block and in every 10 minutes you will get 1 Block or 25 BTC.

Height        Age               Transactions              Total Sent                   Relayed By           Size (kB)
278546   30 minutes                   18                   89.23 BTC               192.237.217.160         8.42
278545   24 minutes                   89                   308.18 BTC                   Deepbit               43.53
278544   30 minutes                   1                     25.00 BTC                      Slush                 0.20
278543   31 minutes                   154                  328.06 BTC                 BTC Guild              88.68
278542   32 minutes                   74                    342.61 BTC                 GHash.IO              33.87
278541   36 minutes                   269                  2,880.63 BTC               BTC Guild             145.74
278540   41 minutes                   541                  22,575.73 BTC             BTC Guild              311.14

Do you really understand what you are talking about?
It seems you don't really understand how bitcoin mining works.


All the 7 blocks above are not orphaned, and the block reward (25btc+tx fee) will be spendable at 100 (or 120, if you use bitcoin-qt) confirmations as usual.


A new block is not going to come out every 10 minutes. It doesn't work like that.
Instead, difficulty adjustment happens every 2016 blocks such that the expected time to find a block will be 10 minutes, if the network hashrate is stable.
It is possible to have 6 blocks in 10 minutes, or to have no blocks in 2 hours.


The words "block discovered" and "block mined" are essentially the same.
And, unless the block is orphaned, the block reward will be spendable afterward.

The genesis block is established Jan 3, 2009.
(https://blockchain.info/block-index/1/000000000019d6689c085ae165831e934ff763ae46a2a6c172b3f1b60a8ce26f)


If we find a block every 10 minutes, we would find 144 blocks a day, 52560 block a year, and thus a total of 262800 (well, 262944 when leap year is considered) blocks for 5 years.
As the network hashrate is increasing, average time to get a block is around 8-9 minutes, we have found 15000 blocks more.

We are ahead of schedule due to hash rate continuing to rocket up. I cannot tell you how far ahead. 

Thank you for your detailed information,  what I believe is my understanding and your is not such vast different my block discovered was to quote orphaned  and I just described in short of 7 blocks what actually was a question but you described well of difficulty retargeting point which is every 2016 blocks.  Will quote your answer its helpful and thank you again.