What is Block height?
The number of blocks in the chain before the current one, counting the genesis block as zero. It is the network's canonical clock.
Height is exact and objective in a way wall-clock time is not. Bitcoin schedules things by height rather than by date: difficulty retargets every 2,016 blocks, the subsidy halves every 210,000.
This is why our halving countdown reports blocks remaining as the primary figure and the calendar date as a derived estimate. The block count is a fact; the date depends on how quickly blocks happen to arrive.
Related terms
Halving
The scheduled 50% reduction of the block subsidy, occurring every 210,000 blocks — roughly every four years.
MiningDifficulty
The parameter setting how hard it is to find a valid block, adjusted every 2,016 blocks to keep the average…
How it worksBlock
A batch of transactions accepted into the ledger together, produced roughly every ten minutes and limited to…
This definition is part of the Bitcoin Logical glossary. For the fuller explanation, start with Learn, or see the live numbers on The Bitcoin Signal.