Users and developers interact with the protocol by writing and deploying confidential smart contracts using Midnight's Compact language and sending private transactions with zero-knowledge proofs.

Midnight is a privacy-first Layer 1 blockchain that blends public verifiability with confidential data handling. It uses zero-knowledge proofs (ZK-SNARKs) and selective disclosure to enable applications that verify correctness without revealing sensitive data. Midnight operates as a partner chain to Cardano and is designed for building confidential smart contracts using its Compact language and the Kachina protocol.

Midnight is developed by Input Output Global (IOG), the company behind Cardano.

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Midnight

# midnight Block time Methodology

## 1. Overview

Block time measures the average time it takes for a new block to be added to the blockchain. It reflects the speed at which the network processes transactions and updates its state. Network latency, throughput consistency, and overall operational efficiency on Midnight are evaluated through this measurement. Predictable transaction settlement and network stability are indicated by consistent block times.

## 2. Data sources

- **Blockchain events**: Block headers and metadata containing block heights and generation timestamps, covering Midnight

## 3. Step-by-step calculation

### Component A: Block ingestion and deduplication

- **Purpose**: Extract and clean raw block data from the Midnight network
- **Logic**: Raw block records are ingested from the latest export partition. Duplicate block records are resolved by retaining only the most recently inserted record for each unique block identifier. Block timestamps, originally represented in epoch milliseconds, are converted to standard timestamp format, and block heights are cast to integers.
- **Key fields**: `block_timestamp`, `block_number`

### Component B: Block interval calculation

- **Purpose**: Determine the time elapsed between consecutive blocks
- **Logic**: The genesis block (height 0) is excluded from the dataset. Blocks are ordered sequentially by block number. The time difference between each block and its immediate predecessor is calculated in milliseconds.
- **Key fields**: `block_timestamp`, `block_number`

### Component C: Daily aggregation and normalization

- **Purpose**: Calculate the average block time on a daily basis
- **Logic**: Individual block intervals are grouped by day using UTC boundaries. The average block time is calculated for each day. Missing days are filled with zeros to ensure a continuous time series, and the final values are filtered based on chain availability.
- **Key fields**: `timestamp`, `block_time`

*This methodology was automatically generated by Token Terminal's methodology analyzer.*

avg(block_timestamp - previous_block_timestamp)

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Block time

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