Next block drops in 5... 4... 3...

[killingthemonkey]

Now I know what my miner software looks like when it's actually mining. Imagine me all excited.  I have a question, however.

Is there an estimated time as to when blocks drop?

[RodeoX]

On average once every 10 mins.

[killingthemonkey]

Does that mean somebody is getting paid every ten minutes?

[Graet]

it means *on average* a block is solved every 10 mins
so on average someone is getting paid every 10mins yes,
most days there is a block on the network approaching 1 hour, but also there will be blocks found quicker than the average.

[knight22]

You can watch the block drops in real time here:

http://www.bitcoinmonitor.com/

[killingthemonkey]

OK, thanks

[Stephen Gornick]

Now I know what my miner software looks like when it's actually mining. Imagine me all excited.   I have a question, however.

Is there an estimated time as to when blocks drop?

It depends on whether hashing strength is increasing or decreasing.

This chart shows how many days it takes for 2,016 blocks:



 - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/oimg?key=0AmcTCtjBoRWUdHVRMHpqWUJValI1RlZiaEtCT1RrQmc&oid=8&zx=hc9djb2l3hlo

The last few data points number between 12.5 days and 13.2 days each.

So let's say currently this is at the level of 13 days per 2,016 blocks.  That mean about 155 blocks are generated per-day.   There are 1,440 minutes per day so that a new block arrives about every nine and a half minutes during the day.  

Now as soon as difficulty adjusts as the end of a 2,016 adjustment period, if the hashing capacity doesn't continue increasing, then blocks will be solved, on average, at the targeted rate of one per ten minutes (and the duration of 2,016 blocks at fourteen days).

[warbdan]

One just dropped.