The total number of orphan blocks which were not selected as the canonical chain. Orphaned blocks are duplicate blocks, produced by different validators, but were not included on the main blockchain. They naturally occur due to network latency, or in instances where two validators produce a block at the same timestamp.

This is the Point-in-Time (PiT) variant of Orphaned Blocks. PiT metrics are strictly append-only and their history is immutable. The historic data does not necessarily reflect the best current knowledge, but the information at the time when a data point was first computed. PiT metrics are ideal candidates for applications in model backtesting and related quantitative purposes. Read our article on PiT metrics for more information.