Rate of block creation

[eipiten]

Hi,

I was trying to calculate the current rate of monetary expansion, and almost every source I've seen says 6 blocks per hour (144 / day) are created.

Then, I read this thread the other day

http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=23301.0

that claims a slightly higher rate (161 blocks / day).  Which one is right and where can I find documentation (I've tried Google and failed)?

Thanks.

[Stephen Gornick]

Hi,

I was trying to calculate the current rate of monetary expansion, and almost every source I've seen says 6 blocks per hour (144 / day) are created.

Then, I read this thread the other day

http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=23301.0

that claims a slightly higher rate (161 blocks / day).  Which one is right and where can I find documentation (I've tried Google and failed)?

Thanks.

The target rate is a block every ten minutes, but when there is more hashing occurring than the target rate, blocks can be solved in less time.  Additionally, variance can cause the number of blocks to vary as well -- where blocks will take even longer than 10 minutes.

But every 2,106 blocks the difficulty will be readjusted to get back on track of hitting a block about once every 10 minutes.

 - http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Difficulty#How_soon_might_I_expect_to_generate_a_block?

[eipiten]

Thanks