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Mean Block Interval (seconds)

/timeseries/asset-metrics

Definition

The mean time (in seconds) between all the blocks created that interval.
Name
MetricID
Category
Subcategory
Type
Unit
Interval
Mean Time Block
BlkIntMean
Network Usage
Blocks
Mean
Seconds
1 block, 1 day

Details

  • Only mainchain (non-orphaned/uncles) blocks are counted.
  • For chains that use median time, the day is defined using it, otherwise, it’s defined using the block’s timestamps.
  • The absolute interval is used (if block n+1 has a timestamp lower than block n, we use the absolute value of the difference in timestamps, see examples).
  • For the block-by-block frequency, it can be interpreted as the amount of time between the publishing of the previous block and the most recent block.
    • For example, Block 1 is published at a timestamp of 02:00:00 UTC, Block 2 is published at a timestamp of 02:10:00 UTC, so the BlkIntMean would just be 10m for Block 2.

Chart

Asset Specific Details

  • On average, Litecoin produces blocks every 2.5 minutes where Ethereum takes around 14 seconds on average

Example

If for a day, the blocks are:
The value of BlkIntMean would be (120 + 20 + 160 + 60) / 4 = 90 seconds

Release History

  • Released in the 1.0 release of NDP

Interpretation

Blockchains with shorter block time (and hence a larger sample size per day) will typically have less variance in mean block interval.

Availability for Assets