Enterprise infrastructure relies on exact timestamps to log transactions, trade securities, and coordinate microservices. Computer software running Unix or POSIX systems tracks time by counting the number of seconds that have elapsed since midnight UTC on January 1, 1970, a metric known as the Unix epoch.
Because the Earth's rotational speed fluctuates due to tidal friction and core movement, the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS) historically introduced leap seconds to synchronize atomic clocks with astronomical solar time. A leap second adds exactly one extra second (or 1/60th of a minute) to an operational year.
These minor shifts created serious friction across digital networks. Systems like NTP (Network Time Protocol) struggled when timestamps repeated or stalled for a single second, triggering outages across telecommunications networks, flight reservation engines, and stock exchanges. In late 2022, the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM) voted to phase out leap seconds by 2035. Global computing platforms increasingly favor Continuous Atomic Time, prioritizing software stability over literal solar precision.
