<p>Luke-Jr commented on this error here: <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/3ydwg2/warning_abnormally_high_number_of_blocks/#oo">https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/3ydwg2/warning_abnormally_high_number_of_blocks/#oo</a></p>

<blockquote>
  <p><strong>What this means:</strong></p>
  
  <p>48 blocks were found within the last 4 hours. The average is
  "supposed" to be 1 block every 10 minutes, or 24 blocks over a 4 hour
  window. Normally, however, blocks are found at random intervals, and
  quite often faster than every 10 minutes due to miners continually
  upgrading or expanding their hardware. In this case, the average has
  reached as low as 5 minutes per block, which triggers the warning.</p>
  
  <p>If the network hashrate was not increasing, this event should occur
  only once every 50 years. To happen on average, persistently, the
  network would need to double its hashrate within 1 week, and even then
  the warning would only last part of that 1 week. So this is a pretty
  strange thing to happen when Bitcoin is only 6 years old - but not
  impossible either.</p>
  
  <p><strong>Update:</strong> During the 4 hours after this posting, block average seems to have been normal, so I am thinking it is probably just an anomaly.
  (Of course, I can't prove there isn't a new miner that has just gone
  dark or mining a forked chain either, so continue to monitor and make
  your own decisions as to risk.)</p>
  
  <p><strong>Why is this a warning?</strong></p>
  
  <p>It's possible that a new mining chip has just been put online that can
  hash much faster than the rest of the network, and that miner is now
  near-doubling the network hashrate or worse. They could have over 51%,
  and might be performing an attack we can't know about yet. So you may
  wish to wait for more blocks than usual before considering high-value
  transactions confirmed, but unless this short block average continues
  on for another few hours, this risk seems unlikely IMO.</p>
  
  <p><strong>Has the blockchain forked?</strong></p>
  
  <p>No, this warning does not indicate that.</p>
  
  <p><strong>Will the warning go away on its own?</strong></p>
  
  <p>Bitcoin Core will continue re-issuing the warning every day until the
  condition (>=2x more blocks) ceases. When it stops issuing the
  warning, however, the message will remain in the status bar (or RPC
  "errors") until the node is restarted.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Edit: Note that although the gist of the explanation above seems to be correct, the exact number of "once every 50 years" seems to be incorrect (bug in bitcoind code) and is probably more like once every 4 years. Details are in the replies to the above Reddit post.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-12-30T13:07:05.827Z
2015-12-30T13:17:18.053Z
2015-12-30T13:17:18.053Z
Jannes
<p>I have this error from 5 days ago on my 2 servers</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>WARNING: abnormally high number of blocks generated, 48 blocks
  received in the last 4 hours (24 expected)</p>
</blockquote>

<p>What is this error ? I need to reindex the chain ?</p>

<p>Thanks you</p>

<blockchain><bitcoind>
WARNING: abnormally high number of blocks generated
soooo
# WARNING: abnormally high number of blocks generated

(Asked by: username_0 on 2015-12-30)

I have this error from 5 days ago on my 2 servers

> WARNING: abnormally high number of blocks generated, 48 blocks
> received in the last 4 hours (24 expected)

What is this error ? I need to reindex the chain ?

Thanks you

**Tags:** blockchain, bitcoind


---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2015-12-30. Score: 7 | Accepted answer

Luke-Jr commented on this error here: <https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/3ydwg2/warning_abnormally_high_number_of_blocks/#oo>

> **What this means:**
>
> 48 blocks were found within the last 4 hours. The average is
> "supposed" to be 1 block every 10 minutes, or 24 blocks over a 4 hour
> window. Normally, however, blocks are found at random intervals, and
> quite often faster than every 10 minutes due to miners continually
> upgrading or expanding their hardware. In this case, the average has
> reached as low as 5 minutes per block, which triggers the warning.
>
> If the network hashrate was not increasing, this event should occur
> only once every 50 years. To happen on average, persistently, the
> network would need to double its hashrate within 1 week, and even then
> the warning would only last part of that 1 week. So this is a pretty
> strange thing to happen when Bitcoin is only 6 years old - but not
> impossible either.
>
> **Update:** During the 4 hours after this posting, block average seems to have been normal, so I am thinking it is probably just an anomaly.
> (Of course, I can't prove there isn't a new miner that has just gone
> dark or mining a forked chain either, so continue to monitor and make
> your own decisions as to risk.)
>
> **Why is this a warning?**
>
> It's possible that a new mining chip has just been put online that can
> hash much faster than the rest of the network, and that miner is now
> near-doubling the network hashrate or worse. They could have over 51%,
> and might be performing an attack we can't know about yet. So you may
> wish to wait for more blocks than usual before considering high-value
> transactions confirmed, but unless this short block average continues
> on for another few hours, this risk seems unlikely IMO.
>
> **Has the blockchain forked?**
>
> No, this warning does not indicate that.
>
> **Will the warning go away on its own?**
>
> Bitcoin Core will continue re-issuing the warning every day until the
> condition (>=2x more blocks) ceases. When it stops issuing the
> warning, however, the message will remain in the status bar (or RPC
> "errors") until the node is restarted.

Edit: Note that although the gist of the explanation above seems to be correct, the exact number of "once every 50 years" seems to be incorrect (bug in bitcoind code) and is probably more like once every 4 years. Details are in the replies to the above Reddit post.


---

