Bitcoin Forum

If I send some bitcoins to some address, and I pay the proper fees, how sure am I that it will be included in the next block? Are there any guarantees if I want my payment to be included in the next block that is mined?

the higher the fee the more chance you have, there is no guarantee, but if you put a fee so high that no one else will use then will probably be processed before any other transaction

It will be included in one of the next blocks. Miners do not make profit out of stopping your transactions, they make them by creating the blocks. If one miner would filter your transaction another miner would include them, that's the nature of decentralized systems.

so i can create a game where they have to hit the proper block to win? how much do you think is the chance that they will hit the target block? like they put a bet for a particular block then when their bet makes it on that block the win X percent. what do you think is the fair winnings then?

Actually just pay recommend fees you can get your transaction sent less than 10minutes. Guaranteed ;)

is there no limit to the number of transactions in a block? what if everybody pays recommended fees? so some will still not make it? am i right?

Your transaction will be relayed across the network in seconds for sure, but nope you can't be sure that it will be confirmed within 10 minutes.
As time between blocks is random, it is not uncommon to see no new blocks for half an hour or more.

what i meant is, is it also not sure that your transaction will not make it to the next block? can the next block be full of transactions and you will be waiting for it for the block after it?

Correct.
Right now bitcoin block has a maximum size of 1 MB. As I said sometimes there is no block for a long period of time, then there will be a huge number of unconfirmed transactions queuing and you will see a couple of "almost full" blocks afterwards.

But in most of the times, your transaction will be confirmed in the next block as long as you pay the standard fee.

there is a limit to that. more transaction means more size, and the block size are limited to 1mb

as of now does the 1 mb limit always get full?

according to this
 https://blockchain.info/charts/avg-block-size

nope, not even close.

does it mean if we send with so little fee it can still make it to the next block? in electrum you can put the fee that you like so is it ok to put .0000001 and be confident that it will make it on the next block?

Let me give you some actual stats.

Yesterday (Apr 23), there are a total of 130 blocks. Among them, 5 are bigger than 975 KB.
https://www.biteasy.com/blockchain/blocks-date/2015-04-23

On Apr 22, there are a total of 152 blocks and only 2 are bigger than 975 KB.
https://www.biteasy.com/blockchain/blocks-date/2015-04-22

On Apr 21, there are a total of 153 blocks and 5 are bigger than 975 KB.
https://www.biteasy.com/blockchain/blocks-date/2015-04-21

that, I'm not sure. I don't want to guess so you'll have to wait for someone with a little more knowledge.

just raise the fee as much as possible, if are really in hurry to send your transaction, for example the hacker that stole the big amount from bitstamp, decided to put 1 btc as a fee, to increase the speed by a lot, apparently with such amount the first confirmation is basically instantaneous

aren't they gonna increase the limit in the near future with an hard fork, i remember 30 mb, i'm right?

It is 20 MB hard-fork. Honestly, I am against it unless other devs tell pros are higher and better than the cons of this fork.

Difference between soft-fork and hard-fork: http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/30817/what-is-a-soft-fork/30821#30821

Then it will depend on priority[1]. Technically, if everyone pays the recommend fees, those with higher priority or higher coin age, input amounts, fees and lower transaction size will get into the block till it's filled.  The miner would still have the final say however.

[1] https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Transaction_fees#Technical_info