Bounds on chain length with BIP-54 timewarp fixes

Posted by sipa

Sep 19, 2026/21:17 UTC

The discussion revolves around the appropriate use of correction factors in the context of blockchain mining and timestamp manipulation by attackers. It emphasizes that the correct approach for calculating a correction factor should involve dividing 2016 by 2015, rather than 2016 by 2014. The latter formula is applicable only to honest miners who adhere to real-time stamping, which results in periods characterized by an Erlang distribution. Unlike honest miners, attackers have the capability to strategically select their timestamps, thereby deviating from this statistical distribution. This strategic selection undermines the relevance of the 2016/2014 ratio for scenarios involving manipulative behaviors on the blockchain.

Link to Raw Post
Bitcoin Logo

TLDR

Join Our Newsletter

We’ll email you summaries of the latest discussions from high signal bitcoin sources, like bitcoin-dev, lightning-dev, and Delving Bitcoin.

Explore all Products

ChatBTC imageBitcoin searchBitcoin TranscriptsSaving SatoshiDecoding BitcoinWarnet
Built with 🧡 by the Bitcoin Dev Project
View our public visitor count

We'd love to hear your feedback on this project.

Give Feedback