<p>In an earlier Version of bitcoin-qt the line was the following:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>SetBestChain: new best=0000000000000419f719  height=212580  work=666804971104474944731</p>
</blockquote>

<p>From: <a href="https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=136628.0" rel="noreferrer">https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=136628.0</a></p>

<blockquote>
  <p>In the log messages, new best is the start of the hash of the block
  that it considers to be the head of the best chain, height is the
  length of the path through the tree, and work is the sum of the work
  embedded in that path.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>It basically means that your client received a new best blockchain, so a new block was found. You can compare those log entries, they will allways increase in height and its always followed by <code>ProcessBlock: ACCEPTED</code></p>

<p>I'm not sure why this is CPU intense for you, i didn't recognized this at my client yet. There is no way to remove this function because its a fundamental one of bitcoin-qt client and the bitcoin protocol. Also making it less CPU intense can only be done by changing the source of the client.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-06-27T13:18:26.267Z
2014-06-27T13:18:26.267Z
Dennis Kriechel
<p>Example the debug log:</p>

<p><code>2014-06-27 12:59:10 UpdateTip: new best=00000000000000002a03b175f183c3bbc440f5c2a171e958bfd504582f711f70  height=308004  log2_work=79.405055  tx=41447698  date=2014-06-27 00:04:17 progress=0.998105</code></p>

<p>There could be dozens of those. </p>

<p>Whatever bitcoin is doing with this 'UpdateTip', it seems very CPU consuming. So what is going on, and is there any way to skip this/make it less CPU intense?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-05-05T15:58:57.240Z
I looked up `log2_work` inside main.cpp and I can't follow its calculation by `log(chainActive.Tip()->nChainWork.getdouble())/log(2.0)`..What is `->` explicitely indicating?
Aliakbar Ahmadi
<bitcoind><synchronization>
What does UpdateTip mean?
please delete me
# What does UpdateTip mean?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2014-06-27)

Example the debug log:

`2014-06-27 12:59:10 UpdateTip: new best=00000000000000002a03b175f183c3bbc440f5c2a171e958bfd504582f711f70 height=308004 log2_work=79.405055 tx=41447698 date=2014-06-27 00:04:17 progress=0.998105`

There could be dozens of those.

Whatever bitcoin is doing with this 'UpdateTip', it seems very CPU consuming. So what is going on, and is there any way to skip this/make it less CPU intense?

**Tags:** bitcoind, synchronization

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: I looked up `log2_work` inside main.cpp and I can't follow its calculation by `log(chainActive.Tip()->nChainWork.getdouble())/log(2.0)`..What is `->` explicitely indicating?  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2014-06-27. Score: 6 | Accepted answer

In an earlier Version of bitcoin-qt the line was the following:

> SetBestChain: new best=0000000000000419f719 height=212580 work=666804971104474944731

From: <https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=136628.0>

> In the log messages, new best is the start of the hash of the block
> that it considers to be the head of the best chain, height is the
> length of the path through the tree, and work is the sum of the work
> embedded in that path.

It basically means that your client received a new best blockchain, so a new block was found. You can compare those log entries, they will allways increase in height and its always followed by `ProcessBlock: ACCEPTED`

I'm not sure why this is CPU intense for you, i didn't recognized this at my client yet. There is no way to remove this function because its a fundamental one of bitcoin-qt client and the bitcoin protocol. Also making it less CPU intense can only be done by changing the source of the client.


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