Bitcoin and it's Relationship With Time

[d5000]

Bitcoin did not actually create any new clock. imo, it created a neutral time reference.

Exactly. "Block time" still depends on the time of other clocks. So it's actually not a "new time", but instead a new way to describe time.

The interesting thing is that the source is actually the system clock of every miner, or a timestamp the miner reports.

In theory there could be incentives for miners to manipulate that timestamp. For example, if you say that you found a block later than you really found it, then the difficulty would lower, and if all miners do the same thing, in the next difficulty period you could "find" more blocks.

But there is a problem: If any node detects such a manipulation, because the new block is too far ahead of its own system clock, it would reject it.

In theory, a cartel of miners with 50%+ hashrate could manipulate that Bitcoin clock via the "Time warp attack", manipulating block times into the past instead into the future, and they could actually drastically increase block speed (due to an oversight by Satoshi). But it is unlikely that this will ever occur. See: https://bitcoinops.org/en/topics/time-warp/

[The Cryptovator]

While the Bitcoin network creates one new block every 10 minutes 24/7 and 365 days a year. No weekends, no holidays and no manager needed. It seems like the heartbeat of global financial system now a days.

That’s the reason we called it a decentralised Bitcoin ecosystem. Everything on the world runs on an ecosystem, like gold also has its own ecosystem and how it works. That means Bitcoin has been running on its own ecosystem, and due to decentralisation, it’s been running always without any third-party control.

This actually means that instead of saying that your payment will arrive in 3 days, the people related to Bitcoin says " wait for six confirmations". So time is now measured in blocks not days.

No, we can’t measure Bitcoin with time. It’s true; often we want to make sure a transaction got at least six confirmations. Doesn’t mean it must be 10 minutes; we sometimes had to wait a couple of days. It’s a matter of the blockchain; you don't necessarily always catch the next block.

[Cryptomultiplier]

This actually means that instead of saying that your payment will arrive in 3 days, the people related to Bitcoin says " wait for six confirmations". So time is now measured in blocks not days.

The idea here is this, Bitcoin has made a lot of revolutionary change when it comes to financial is why many of us will always appreciate having this unique opportunity for our privacy and also control it, with bitcoin network, you will enjoy cheaper transaction fee, faster transaction speed compared to the traditional system, and you can be able to even customize it to your affordability, it has completely solved the challenges of cross border payment and also present unto us many other opportunities we can benefit by investing in Bitcoin.

The time relationship that Bitcoin emerged with is quite brilliant, if not the most brilliant thing that makes it a revolutionary currency and investment above any other existing investments and financial systems that exist till date.

Bitcoin redefined the monetary financial systems of the world and challenged the status quo to think twice and that's why a hybrid financial system exist today with the fiat systems, stocks and bonds, gold and precious metals as part of the hybrid macroeconomics that makes investment vast, with options and Bitcoin being the top choice among  other digital currencies to invest in too.
Bitcoin replaced the existing wall clock timing of these other financial systems with the proof of work Blockchain and that's brilliance.

​

[retreat]

This actually means that instead of saying that your payment will arrive in 3 days, the people related to Bitcoin says " wait for six confirmations". So time is now measured in blocks not days.

For cross-border payments, Bitcoin could be a great solution because you can send payments without having to wait a long time or pay unreasonable fees. However, for everyday transactions, the confirmation time might be impractical since you have to wait for confirmation, and depending on the fees you pay and network congestion, it might take longer than expected. So for transactions that don’t require immediate settlement, Bitcoin has some advantages.

[Miles2006]

This actually means that instead of saying that your payment will arrive in 3 days, the people related to Bitcoin says " wait for six confirmations". So time is now measured in blocks not days.

Talking about time, six confirmation might take much longer time depending on the transaction fee. The last time I tried waiting for five confirmation it took much longer time but, three confirmation is okay to trade because at that point the money is already available for use.

The big idea and the conclusion is that human civilization ran on sun time , then clock time and then business hours. Bitcoin on the other hand introduced "block time", a financial system that doesn't care if you are asleep or if it's a festival Eid, Christmas or Diwali or if the banks are closed. so Bitcoin isn't just changing money but also changing how we measure time in finance.

Share your views.

Bitcoin is a digital asset, I expect bitcoin to stand out viewing bitcoin already gain much adoption though this is not about adoption but, how bitcoin can be stress free and less complicated in relate with time. The traditional system cannot be eliminated out fully so even if we find differences between block time, business hours etc we still got to make use of them all but, in this situation bitcoin is more like an eye opener how we view time and finance.

[Faisal2202]

What he means is that as long as both parties accept to send and receive funds from each other, there's nothing that can stop it even during holidays because we eat during holidays. Unlike banks that will be shutdown during holidays and people might even need to send funds to their loved ones across boarders. Bitcoin is worldwide and traders and investors will continue moving coins from one wallet to another which is the reason why a new block is mined before or after 10 mins because miners are very active.

Transactions of the sender or receiver are not the reason for a new block, miners continuously hash the block header and they try to find that hash, a valid one will form a block and it can even happen in less than 10 minutes, and sometimes a block can take a lot longer than 10 minutes. So, transactions are not necessary to form that block, because what you are saying makes it confusing and sounds like they are very important for the block.

Can you tell if a block can only have the same number of transactions? Let me tell you, no they can't. Some can have 500 or some can have 1500 transactions in them, so if the transactions are responsible for new blocks then why are they not the main reference point?

[tabas]

Even the Bitcoin block halvings, people say it happens every four years but it's only a rough time while the exact information is every 210,000 blocks there will be a next Bitcoin halving.

This is also what got me in my mind that when OP talks about the relationship of Bitcoin by having the block time and or time alone. That is because we're timing the every halving and the blocks mined and the rewards will be halved and that's estimated every 4 years. It has become one of the basis of many investors that every bull run cycle is happening after 4 years. Our minds are set that it happens every 4 years so, it means that the price also will increase for that period of time. It's brilliant to imagine that but that's a proven fact and everyone knows about it.

[Franklyn-wood]

Although you exaggerated things here, it still carries a high level of truth. What you described can be applicable to wire transfer only, as I don't know other means of payment that would take 2-3 business days to clear. And even with Bitcoin, you need human authorisation in many transactions, if they are not automatic. So, if it's a holiday time, the receivers would have to wait as well.

What he means is that as long as both parties accept to send and receive funds from each other, there's nothing that can stop it even during holidays because we eat during holidays. Unlike banks that will be shutdown during holidays and people might even need to send funds to their loved ones across boarders. Bitcoin is worldwide and traders and investors will continue moving coins from one wallet to another which is the reason why a new block is mined before or after 10 mins because miners are very active.

The effiency of time in Bitcoin transaction is very good and accurate suitable for all forms of needs that is available to meet no matter the distance. No matter the condition that one finds himself or her selfwhen it comes to transaction, if there is a stable network you are sure of interrupted flow of limitations that causes delay to the transactions process which variies from authorization, legitimacy of the funds received,  processing time and high transaction fees depending on the amount sents and more.

[AmoreJaz]

This actually means that instead of saying that your payment will arrive in 3 days, the people related to Bitcoin says " wait for six confirmations". So time is now measured in blocks not days.

For cross-border payments, Bitcoin could be a great solution because you can send payments without having to wait a long time or pay unreasonable fees. However, for everyday transactions, the confirmation time might be impractical since you have to wait for confirmation, and depending on the fees you pay and network congestion, it might take longer than expected. So for transactions that don’t require immediate settlement, Bitcoin has some advantages.

This is why there is still a hindrance when it comes to every day use for btc. A lot of merchants are charging high fees in which it becomes impractical to use your coin. That is why, it is still better to use your fiat rather than directly spending your btc. However, for cross-border payments, btc is very useful because if you are just sending the btc itself, you can send it when the mempool is not busy and so you will only incur small fees.

[lionheart78]

Share your views.

I do not think it makes any difference when it comes to time.  Bitcoin confirmation is still tied to the natural flow of time, the same way that bank services are tied to the natural flow of time.  The difference is how these two services make out of being tied to the natural flow of time.  While the centralized services have limited operating hours, Bitcoin has 24/7 operating hours, which is thanks to the global automated mining farm, which runs 24/7, pointing to a network where secure that the network is running 24/7, despite the mining farms maintenance and partial shutdown.

Banks can actually do this kind of 24/7 service, specifically through their online bank applications. If one happens to do an online bank transaction, they can send transactions at any time, but obviously, the processing time is still dependent on the bank's rules.  I think the protocol, not the time or clock, makes Bitcoin way more advanced in terms of transaction processing than the bank.

[ruykeri]

The relationship between bitcoin and its time is its price and demand. In the world's fiat currency economy, the value of the currency decreases over time, interest rates increase, new money has to be printed. The government keeps printing money as per convenience, resulting in the price decreasing. That is why inflation comes into people's consideration after a few years. Since it starts at a very slow pace, but if we calculate according to the statistics of the last few years, inflation is almost reaching unbearable levels day by day. Here, basically, the price of fiat currency is decreasing with time. On the other hand, bitcoin is creating new blocks over time. Where halving occurs after 210,000 blocks are created, after which the supply of bitcoin decreases. After which, the demand for Bitcoin usually remains the same or increases compared to before. But due to the low supply, its price increases. Although Bitcoin is a volatile asset, its price increases day by day in the long term, one of the reasons for this is that its supply decreases.

[Smartprofit]

Yes, bitcoin time now exists. Incidentally, it's often used on the forum for various contests and giveaways. 🙋

You can also use it to protect your copyright, as blockchain history cannot be rewritten.

You can also use bitcoin time to pass coins on to your heirs.

It's not block time or Bitcoin time but Locktime for Bitcoin inheritance.

Using Locktime for inheritance planning, backups or gifts.
What is Locktime?
Time lock (Bitcoin Wiki).

The TimeLock you're talking about is measured by the Bitcoin blockchain's internal clock. This means the blockchain's internal clock actually exists, and amazing things can be done with it! 🙋

The TimeLock you're talking about is essentially a specialized alarm clock. However, no alarm clock can function without a time measurement system. The Bitcoin blockchain has one.

For the average person, traditional time measurement systems seem more convenient because they're tailored to human biorhythms. However, for a cryptocurrency enthusiast, Bitcoin time can be much more interesting. Living within your own time frame is only available to the elite! Therefore, I'm confident that in the future, we'll see people actively using Bitcoin time. It will be very fashionable, and for those who regularly interact with Bitcoin, it's also convenient.🧖

[atookz]

Excellent observation, a lot of times this is overlooked. Block time actually exists and sending BTC, waiting for confirmations is nothing like a bank that says 1-2 business days. No holidays or time zones here; blocks just keep piling on.

Small addition: that 10 min is the average, not the exact amount, can be 2 min or 40 min depending on network conditions. To achieve finality, the standard 6 confirmations was adopted, part of the reason for that. Not only that, other chains have block times as well (ETH runs on ~12 sec), it just happens that Bitcoin did it first which is why it gets the attention.

Sort of like when people switched from local time to standard time zones when trains and telegraphs required everyone to be synchronized. Bitcoin is essentially doing the same for finance — it's a single clock, all the time, with no holidays or time zones. Good topic.

[ZAINmalik75]

Well, for local transactions, even fiat payment systems such as mobile apps or web apps can be used at any time, but for cross-border or international transfers, it's true that when you are using Bitcoin, or any other cryptocurrency, you won't have to wait at all because the network is running all the time, and even if the network is congested sometimes, you can still pay a higher fees and get your transaction confirmed. And, with fiat systems, sometimes there are updates going on, or sometimes there are system errors, so you can't make transfers and then have to wait.

However, there is no doubt that Bitcoin is a financial revolution, and anyone who doesn't accept this is ignorant. If someone says that there are cryptocurrencies with better networks than Bitcoin, they need to understand that the revolution was brought because of Bitcoin, and then other cryptocurrencies were created, so Bitcoin is the OG, and all others are just alternatives, that is why we call them altcoins or alternative cryptocurrencies because they all have copied Bitcoin.

[bitbollo]

I would not expect this can become a new standard for everyone - but blocknumber has become the new "mile stone" for counting certain events related bitcoin culture. It's also more efficient and easy to use (likewise while dealing with different time zones).
It's really interesting to see the various usages... with bitcoin you can confirm that a specific input has been added to a certain blockheight.
Basically, this is the most trusted source for time, data and related updates. Probably one of the most undervalued use of bitcoin actually.

[pawanjain]

People talk about Bitcoin as digital money, gold or asset but almost no body talk about that "Bitcoin created its own Clock"
Normal finance like banks , stock market , loans, payment and salaries runs on " human time" likewise Monday to Friday traditional working from 9-5, payment take 2-3 business days and if it's holiday you have to wait.

While the Bitcoin network creates one new block every 10 minutes 24/7 and 365 days a year. No weekends, no holidays and no manager needed. It seems like the heartbeat of global financial system now a days.

This actually means that instead of saying that your payment will arrive in 3 days, the people related to Bitcoin says " wait for six confirmations". So time is now measured in blocks not days.

The big idea and the conclusion is that human civilization ran on sun time , then clock time and then business hours. Bitcoin on the other hand introduced "block time", a financial system that doesn't care if you are asleep or if it's a festival Eid, Christmas or Diwali or if the banks are closed. so Bitcoin isn't just changing money but also changing how we measure time in finance.

Share your views.

That's quite an interesting perspective to see bitcoin. Measuring time in bitcoin blocks, sounds fascinating but far from reality on a larger scale.
Well, it's not necessary to wait for 6 confirmations, 2 confirmations are still find and does the job.
But I hope, bitcoin gets adopted on a wide scale quickly and many payments are on the bitcoin network and we really do get to hear the phrase "wait for 2 confirmations" quite often.

[Yorubek]

Bitcoin has given people a new way to measure financial certainty by changing their time. It is true that in traditional banks many times you often have to wait 2-3 business days, but in Bitcoin I think depending on our needs wait 1 confirmation but 5 for more security and transfer assets very quickly. However, it does not depend on the calendar but on the consensus of the network. Also, Bitcoin has created a new ecosystem in the world economy where transactions can be made from different parts of the world in a very short time without any hassle. It creates a block every 10 minutes on average and a block can come in 1 minute or it can take 30-60 minutes or even longer.

[BitcoinPak]

This is also what got me in my mind that when OP talks about the relationship of Bitcoin by having the block time and or time alone. That is because we're timing the every halving and the blocks mined and the rewards will be halved and that's estimated every 4 years. It has become one of the basis of many investors that every bull run cycle is happening after 4 years. Our minds are set that it happens every 4 years so, it means that the price also will increase for that period of time. It's brilliant to imagine that but that's a proven fact and everyone knows about it.

Totally irrelevant, because OP didn't mention about block halving but he mentioned about the blocks being mined which determine the confirmation time of a transaction in the Bitcoin network. The block halving has absolutely nothing to do with this topic or discussion, nor does the price of Bitcoin and its mechanics, this topic is all about how Bitcoin is available all the time for making transactions compared to traditionally available financial and monetary systems where a person might need to wait for days before getting a transaction confirmed, especially if they are making an international transfer.

People who make a lot of cross-border transactions and are now using Bitcoin for it will understand the actual difference and ease of use, because they know how much of a hassle it can be for them to make an internation transfer through the traditional banking channels, and then how easy it is with Bitcoin because all you have to do is take the address of the receiver, open your wallet, and send the funds without any wait or delay other than the necessary block confirmations.

[Slow death]

If most countries in the world (this includes my country) were using Bitcoin as a payment method for everything, such as paying water bills, electricity bills, buying groceries, gasoline, and hospital bills, then Bitcoin would be breaking down a barrier. No one would say things like, "There's no system to process payments via POS because it's the weekend it will take the central bank a long time to resolve the network problem."

With a Bitcoin card and no fiat conversion, the payment would be direct, and we could celebrate greatly. But unfortunately, the reality is that even having Bitcoin, on weekends we have to deal with headaches trying to make payments in my country, because everything can only be bought with fiat currency and the network always has problems; ATMs are constantly down.

[Hamza2424]

People talk about Bitcoin as digital money, gold or asset but almost no body talk about that "Bitcoin created its own Clock"
Normal finance like banks , stock market , loans, payment and salaries runs on " human time" likewise Monday to Friday traditional working from 9-5, payment take 2-3 business days and if it's holiday you have to wait.

Bro, I like your enthusiasm, but do you really think Bitcoin has created a new form of time? Blocks are not a clock in the normal sense because a block isn't really produced every ten minutes; it can take more or less. Sometimes it can be created within five minutes even. Also, six blocks don't necessarily take exactly one hour. In the same way, when a bank says they are going to take three business days, in some cases, they can take longer, but typically they take less than a day.

But I have to agree that it removes our dependence on business hours. With fiat or banks, we have to visit them, or deal with maintenance issues in banking apps, ATMs are sometimes not working, and most importantly, here in my city, some banks' ATMs are giving people fake cash. There is one that has the highest number of cases reported, and they have fake currency of the highest-denomination currency note.

So yep, this is a meaningful distinction that has helped all of us. It is permissionless.