Bitcoin Forum

Is it normal that so few blocks are being mined at the moment?

I see 4 blocks have been mined in the last 2h15. I don't often check the number of blocks being mined, but 4 blocks instead of the expected 13 seems to be way off from normal to me.

You have been here since mid 2013 and don't know can happen? it isn't normal being on average it should be around the 10 mins but it is not unheard of. If no blocks are found in 2hours that would be more unusual but still possible.

I have never had to wait a long time for a transaction to confirm, but then I rarely send bitcoins and when I spend them they are 0 confirmation spends, so no, I don't notice when very few blocks are being mined.

Like I say, I am not someone who watches the blockchain closely, but 2 gaps of an hour between blocks in the last 3 hours and 4 blocks in the last 140 minutes must be a good few standard deviations off the mean.

It is a slow night for sure... It takes me back wondering and strolling on memory lane.

A few years back when i just bought my first few BTC and that block took 98 minutes to confirm. For sure i would get my coins in 10 minutes.. wtf did I do wrong? Wrong address, did I got scammed, something wrong with my wallet? A the sweet memories of being uninformed.  :D

Atm 18,000 tx+ waiting to get served, I'm sorry a few of them are mine.

That seems unusual but not impossible. It happens once in a while and most possibly during the time when the price of bitcoin increases  rapidly. But aside from that season it is very unhreard of but as long as the transactions are successful then  that is fine.

I'm not sure if this thing should be an alarming case if it becomes rampant or becomes a frequent situation.

its got nothing to do with the price of bitcoin.

the 10 minute theory is not a hard rule

the hard rule is 2016 blocks in 2 weeks..
this could be 2015 blocks in 2 hours and then 1 block taking 1 week, 22hours
this could be 1008 blocks in 1 day hours and then 1008 block taking 1 week, 5day 23hours, 50 minutes

where in both cases no difficulty adjustment is needed.
or it could be only 1995 blocks are found in the next 2 weeks. causing the difficulty to drop to compensate
or it could be only 2036 blocks are found in the next 2 weeks. causing the difficulty to rise to compensate

the reason most blocks are found in ~10 minutes is when hashrate is exceeding difficulty that more often than not blocks are found quit rapidly.

on the 28th of december the difficulty jumped by 2% (310-317) but the hashrate has not grown by 2%.
the hashrate was at 2,575 and is now 2,337 (-1%) meaning the solution is 2% harder but the hashrate is 1% less.. causing a 3% drop in efficiency.

this wont correlate exactly to a 3% change in timing. but more so a 3% more of a chance that some blocks will take longer than usual.
EG imagine there were 2016 blocks measured at ~10minutes

it could mean
60 blocks taking a little longer than usual(11min instead of 10mins)
6 blocks taking alot longer than usual(an hour instead of 10mins)
1 block taking even lonnger than usual (6 hours instead of 10mins)

the first one is most likely. the last one is least likely. but no one can know with exactly honestly when the next block will be solved to the exact second.

its only average 10minutes based on the maths of 2 weeks

That is not quite correct. The difficulty is adjusted every 2016 blocks. The adjustment attempts to make the next 2016 blocks take two weeks based on the time it took to mine the previous 2016 blocks.

this is a normal thing, although the block time is 10 minutes between, it is an average, and the actual time is a random thing with regard of that average.

I see that it is normal. it's not difficult to understand .
the diff is rising highly and so the blocks found is reduced .

It is normal i have even seen only 1 block being mined in one hour period. However in overall calculation average time per block will always be 10 minute because the remaining 9 blocks will be mined with <10 minute gap in future.

There are also many blocks getting mined within 1-2 minutes just like few blocks in very long time gap so i think this is normal and bitcoin network balance average time to mine one block to 10 minute. However i also don't know what is the cause for this time lag between two consecutive blocks..

It happens more often than you'd think, but people only usually notice it if it happens while they're waiting for a transaction to go through.  It's also equally possible that you might see 4 blocks within 10 minutes.



No, this thread is not a question of not being included in the next block due to insufficient fee, but about the frequency of blocks being mined.  Paying a high fee doesn't make the next block get found any faster, it just increases your likelihood of being included in it.



Chance, probability, luck.  Call it what you will.  It's effectively a race between mining pools and, like all races, no one knows beforehand what the winning time will be.  Some miners will have a competitive advantage if they have the superior hashpower, but it still doesn't guarantee their victory.  Sometimes the tortoise beats the hare and sometimes you have to wait a bit longer than average.

I've seen three hour gaps in between blocks before. One every half hour isn't very special. It's uncommon, but boy it always seems to happen when I am using it. I used to play fishbitfish, a Bitcoin gambling game, and would stay up for a game that was supposed to end at 11 pm and go to sleep at 1 am.

98 minutes? I would have fainted if it had happened to me 😂

Well its a digital world and slow internet is possible to Happen. But if the transaction is done safe and sound, then I guess there's nothing to worry about.