<p>Because not everyone's nodes' clocks are in sync with each other and because of network latency, there needs to be some buffer of time that a block's timestamp can be in so that nodes will still accept blocks. </p>

<p>Having a larger buffer allows for miners to change the timestamp too in addition to the nonce in order to have more possible blocks given the same list of transactions.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-10-24T02:37:47.930Z
2017-10-24T02:37:47.930Z
Ava Chow
<p>From <a href="https://bitcoin.org/en/developer-guide#locktime-and-sequence-number" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Bitcoin.org</a> </p>

<blockquote>
  <p>The peer-to-peer network allows block time to be up to two hours ahead of real time, so a locktime transaction can be added to the blockchain up to two hours before its time lock officially expires.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Why does the bitcoin blockchain allow blocks to have timestamps 2 hours ahead of real time (the real world clock time on a node)? What is the advantage of doing this?</p>

<blockchain><block>
Bitcoin Blockchain block time
Imran Makhdoom
# Bitcoin Blockchain block time

(Asked by: username_0 on 2017-10-24)

From [Bitcoin.org](https://bitcoin.org/en/developer-guide#locktime-and-sequence-number)

> The peer-to-peer network allows block time to be up to two hours ahead of real time, so a locktime transaction can be added to the blockchain up to two hours before its time lock officially expires.

Why does the bitcoin blockchain allow blocks to have timestamps 2 hours ahead of real time (the real world clock time on a node)? What is the advantage of doing this?

**Tags:** blockchain, block


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2017-10-24. Score: 0

Because not everyone's nodes' clocks are in sync with each other and because of network latency, there needs to be some buffer of time that a block's timestamp can be in so that nodes will still accept blocks.

Having a larger buffer allows for miners to change the timestamp too in addition to the nonce in order to have more possible blocks given the same list of transactions.


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