diff --git a/src/init.cpp b/src/init.cpp
--- a/src/init.cpp
+++ b/src/init.cpp
@@ -1532,6 +1532,10 @@
             "OS cryptographic RNG sanity check failure. Aborting."));
     }
 
+    if (!ChronoSanityCheck()) {
+        return InitError(Untranslated("Clock epoch mismatch. Aborting."));
+    }
+
     return true;
 }
 
diff --git a/src/test/sanity_tests.cpp b/src/test/sanity_tests.cpp
--- a/src/test/sanity_tests.cpp
+++ b/src/test/sanity_tests.cpp
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
 #include <key.h>
 
 #include <test/util/setup_common.h>
+#include <util/time.h>
 
 #include <boost/test/unit_test.hpp>
 
@@ -15,6 +16,7 @@
 BOOST_AUTO_TEST_CASE(basic_sanity) {
     BOOST_CHECK_MESSAGE(glibcxx_sanity_test() == true, "stdlib sanity test");
     BOOST_CHECK_MESSAGE(ECC_InitSanityCheck() == true, "secp256k1 sanity test");
+    BOOST_CHECK_MESSAGE(ChronoSanityCheck() == true, "chrono epoch test");
 }
 
 BOOST_AUTO_TEST_SUITE_END()
diff --git a/src/util/time.h b/src/util/time.h
--- a/src/util/time.h
+++ b/src/util/time.h
@@ -86,4 +86,7 @@
  */
 struct timeval MillisToTimeval(std::chrono::milliseconds ms);
 
+/** Sanity check epoch match normal Unix epoch */
+bool ChronoSanityCheck();
+
 #endif // BITCOIN_UTIL_TIME_H
diff --git a/src/util/time.cpp b/src/util/time.cpp
--- a/src/util/time.cpp
+++ b/src/util/time.cpp
@@ -36,6 +36,47 @@
     return now;
 }
 
+bool ChronoSanityCheck() {
+    // std::chrono::system_clock.time_since_epoch and time_t(0) are not
+    // guaranteed to use the Unix epoch timestamp, prior to C++20, but in
+    // practice they almost certainly will. Any differing behavior will be
+    // assumed to be an error, unless certain platforms prove to consistently
+    // deviate, at which point we'll cope with it by adding offsets.
+
+    // Create a new clock from time_t(0) and make sure that it represents 0
+    // seconds from the system_clock's time_since_epoch. Then convert that back
+    // to a time_t and verify that it's the same as before.
+    const time_t time_t_epoch{};
+    auto clock = std::chrono::system_clock::from_time_t(time_t_epoch);
+    if (std::chrono::duration_cast<std::chrono::seconds>(
+            clock.time_since_epoch())
+            .count() != 0) {
+        return false;
+    }
+
+    time_t time_val = std::chrono::system_clock::to_time_t(clock);
+    if (time_val != time_t_epoch) {
+        return false;
+    }
+
+    // Check that the above zero time is actually equal to the known unix
+    // timestamp.
+    struct tm epoch;
+#ifdef _WIN32
+    if (gmtime_s(&epoch, &time_val) != 0) {
+#else
+    if (gmtime_r(&time_val, &epoch) == nullptr) {
+#endif
+        return false;
+    }
+
+    if ((epoch.tm_sec != 0) || (epoch.tm_min != 0) || (epoch.tm_hour != 0) ||
+        (epoch.tm_mday != 1) || (epoch.tm_mon != 0) || (epoch.tm_year != 70)) {
+        return false;
+    }
+    return true;
+}
+
 template <typename T> T GetTime() {
     const std::chrono::seconds mocktime{
         nMockTime.load(std::memory_order_relaxed)};