Bitcoin Uptime Tracker
How long Bitcoin has been running, live since the 2009 genesis block.
Bitcoin has been running for
Continuous uptime since the genesis block, January 3, 2009.
Bitcoin has been running continuously for approximately 17 years since January 2009.
Continuous block production since January 3, 2009, with only 2 brief consensus incidents on record.
Live Network Status
- Time since last block
- 3m 0s
- Average block interval
- 10.5 min
- Current block height
- 959,948
Network and block data from mempool.space.
Learn about our methodology →
Methodology
We verify every formula against primary sources, run it on live data, and document each model's assumptions and limits.
Learn about our methodology →
Built and reviewed by Fabio Arcieri
Fabio Arcieri
Founder, Orange Abacus
Bitcoin researcher with a background in economics and a decade in digital marketing. He builds and reviews every calculator on this site against primary sources.
Read full profile →Last reviewed: July 2026
Key terms behind Bitcoin network uptime
Bitcoin network uptime rests on a small set of protocol-level terms.
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Genesis block | Block 0, the first block in Bitcoin’s blockchain, mined on January 3, 2009, at 18:15:05 UTC. Every later block chains back to it. |
| Block | A batch of confirmed Bitcoin transactions added to the blockchain, produced roughly every 10 minutes. |
| Block height | The cumulative count of blocks mined since the genesis block. |
| Average block interval | The network’s actual pace between blocks, which fluctuates around the 10-minute protocol target. |
| Mempool | The pool of unconfirmed transactions a node holds while waiting for the next block to include them. |
| Downtime / incident | A period where the Bitcoin network failed to converge on a single valid chain. Only 2 such incidents have occurred in Bitcoin’s history. |
Bitcoin uptime history and known incidents
Bitcoin has run continuously since its genesis block on January 3, 2009, 18:15:05 UTC. Its history includes 2 confirmed incidents where the network briefly failed to converge on a single valid chain.
The first was the value overflow incident, tracked as Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) identifier CVE-2010-5139, on August 15, 2010. A flaw in the code that checked transaction outputs let a transaction in block 74,638 create over 184 billion BTC, far beyond the 21 million BTC supply cap. Developers published a patched client within 5 hours, and the corrected chain overtook the flawed one at block 74,691, closing the incident after approximately 8 hours and 27 minutes.
The second was a chain fork, CVE-2013-3220, on March 11 and 12, 2013. A large block at height 225,430, mined at 23:24 UTC on March 11, split the network between nodes running Bitcoin Core 0.8 and nodes running earlier versions. The fork resolved at block 225,454, mined at 06:19 UTC on March 12, after approximately 6 hours and 55 minutes.
Combined, the 2 incidents total approximately 15 hours and 22 minutes of disrupted consensus. Dividing total elapsed time since genesis, minus that combined downtime, by total elapsed time produces a figure that rounds to 99.99% network uptime. Genesis to today spans more than 17 years of continuous operation, a span large enough that the resulting percentage holds steady at 99.99% even as more time passes.
Why Bitcoin has never needed scheduled downtime
Bitcoin has no central operator, no company server, and no maintenance window to schedule. It is a peer-to-peer system run by thousands of independent nodes, each enforcing the same rules, so no single node’s outage, upgrade, or shutdown can stop block production. The trade-off is that no one entity can guarantee network uptime the way a company backs a service level agreement (SLA). Continuity rests on aligned incentives across independent participants, not a contractual promise.
Bitcoin’s uptime compared to traditional payment networks
Visa’s processing network, VisaNet, runs at 99.9999% uptime across seven independent data centers with full redundancy, according to Visa. Typical payment-processor SLAs guarantee a lower baseline, commonly around 99% minimum uptime, excluding scheduled maintenance.
Bitcoin network uptime, calculated at approximately 99.99%, sits within that same broad range. The comparison is informative rather than a ranking. Visa’s figure describes a company-operated network with dedicated infrastructure and contractual guarantees. Bitcoin’s figure describes an emergent property of a decentralized network with no company behind it.
The clearest structural difference is the scheduled maintenance window. Visa’s stated figures exclude scheduled maintenance from the calculation. Bitcoin has never had a maintenance period to exclude, since no protocol upgrade requires the network to pause block production.
Frequently asked questions
Has Bitcoin ever gone down?
The Bitcoin network has produced blocks continuously since the genesis block on January 3, 2009. There have been two short consensus incidents in its history (a value-overflow bug in 2010 and a chain split in 2013), both resolved within hours, but the network has never had a scheduled maintenance window or a central switch that could take it offline. Individual services and exchanges go down, the base protocol does not.When did Bitcoin start running?
Bitcoin's genesis block was mined on January 3, 2009, at 18:15:05 UTC. Every block since then chains back to it, so the elapsed time on this page is measured from that exact timestamp.What is Bitcoin's uptime percentage?
Bitcoin's uptime percentage is approximately 99.99%, calculated from continuous block production since the genesis block on January 3, 2009. The figure accounts for the network's only 2 confirmed consensus incidents, an 8-hour, 27-minute value overflow bug in August 2010 and a 6-hour, 55-minute chain fork in March 2013. Combined, the incidents total approximately 15 hours and 22 minutes of disrupted consensus against more than 17 years of continuous operation. No scheduled maintenance window or central operator has ever taken the network offline.How is Bitcoin's uptime calculated?
Bitcoin's uptime is calculated by dividing total elapsed time since the genesis block, minus the combined duration of its 2 documented incidents, by that same total elapsed time. The inputs are the genesis timestamp (January 3, 2009, 18:15:05 UTC) and the confirmed durations of the 2010 value overflow incident and the 2013 chain fork. Both are independently verifiable from block explorer data. This produces a figure that rounds to 99.99% and holds steady at that level for a long time, since the fixed downtime shrinks as a share of the growing total.Does a slow Bitcoin block count as downtime?
A slow Bitcoin block does not count as downtime. Block times vary naturally around the 10-minute target, and gaps of 30 minutes or more happen regularly without any transaction failing to eventually confirm. Downtime, in Bitcoin's history, refers only to the 2 incidents where the network briefly split into conflicting chains, not to normal variance in block timing. A slow block just means transactions wait longer in the mempool before the next block clears them.Is Bitcoin more reliable than Visa or other payment networks?
Bitcoin's reliability sits close to Visa's rather than clearly ahead of or behind it. Visa states VisaNet uptime reaching up to 99.9999% across seven redundant data centers, and typical payment-processor service level agreements (SLAs) guarantee around 99% minimum uptime. Bitcoin's own calculated figure is approximately 99.99% across its history. The structural difference is that Visa operates centralized infrastructure with a scheduled maintenance window, while Bitcoin has no operator or maintenance schedule to account for. The comparison describes 2 different kinds of systems, not a ranking.