Bitcoin Forum

I send bitcoins to sportsbooks.  When i do this, usually it takes a bit of time for my account to be credited.  Sometimes very fast, but sometimes a bit slower.  When i receive a bitcoin payout from a sportsbook, it usually takes a bit of time as well.  I know whenever i send bitcoin or receive, it always shows the amount of bitcoins unconfirmed but it does show up later on.  I use electrum.


I have traded my bitcoin for poker funds before and when i do this, once i sent bitcoin to someone, they wait until they receive the bitcoin before they send me the poker funds or bank account fund etc.  Now i want to trade my poker funds and bank account funds for their bitcoin.  Sometimes i send first, other times someone else sends etc depending on who has the stronger rep.


Well if they send me bitcoin first, how do i know 100 percent i received the funds on electrum?  Thus i don't want a case where they tell me they send the bitcoin... then i look at my electrum wallet and i see the amount of bitcoin send to me pending but not confirmed... has that time thing next to it etc... if i see this, does that mean 100 percent the bitcoins are sent to me and it cannot be reversed?  I know bitcoin is not reversible but then again why do certain sites for example require 2, 5 or 10 confirmations then?  Obviously if i see the bitcoin sent to my electrum where the amount of btc is added to my btc balance, i know 100 percent i received the bitcoin.  However, that usually takes a bit of time for that to happen.  And obviously i dont want for that until i send the poker/bank account funds?  So i want to know how am i sure 100 percent, the btc sent to me to my electrum is sent?  Now if a site sends me bitcoins, i don't have to worry since its legit.  But if its another user... well how do i know 100 percent?  If it shows pending... it that good enough?  Say someone sends me 5 bitcoins... if i see 5 bitcoin in my electrum wallet even though theres 0 confirmation or 1 confirmation, is that enough to send the poker/bank account funds?

Briefly, bitcoin is irreversible.  BUT if a transaction doesn't get confirmations in 24-48 hrs it gets cancelled.  Thats way most of the companies dice sites wait for a few confirmations. Because when it receives about 5 you can make sure at that time that nothing bad is going to happen. Cancelling is also possible by something I hear called double spending.

Sum up: wait for 5-8 confirmations and be happy  ;)

if everything is normal with blockchain (i don't want to go into details but there was a problem a while back with SPV mining which is solved now) you don't generally need to worry about anything.
so you only have to wait for 1 confirmation and you can be 100% sure that you have received the bitcoin.

also with 0 confirmation you can decide if it will be confirmed or not by looking at the priority of the transaction if it is high priority with normal fees and there is no spam attack on the network (10K-20K unconfirmed tx) then you can also be 95% sure that you will receive the coins.

How if the transaction spends a dust output? Basically, blockchain's priority estimator(PE) or any other PEs aren't that accurate for sure. Therefore, don't believe these PE thingy. To be safe, wait for the transaction to get atleast 2 confirmations & you'll be fine.

@OP
just wait for the transaction to get confirmed and you're good to go.



www.blocktrail.com shows transaction priority in accurate numerical value.
but 0 confirmation transaction can still be double spent so high priority is no reason to trust a transaction with 0 confirmation.

You must wait for 1 confirmations to be sure that the transaction is going through. After one confirmation you need to control 51% of the bitcoin network to frustrate that transaction. And that can't be done by normal people.

I prefer waiting for at least two confirmations to make assurance doubly sure. I do not want some computer geek to scam me of my coins.

well i use electrum.  So i would know there is 1 confirmation by clicking on the pending bitcoin transaction when receiving it?  I believe i would just right click and click on something? And what do i click on?  Or can i just highlight it... then it show how much confirmation?



So 1 or 2 confirmation just to be safe?  Anyone had 1 confirmation or 2 confirmation only for that to be reversed later on?

Honestly I wait for about 3-4 confirmations just to be on the safe side.

In desktop wallets like Multibit and Electrum, your bitcoins aren't truly yours (you cannot spend it) until you have at least 1 confirmation, after this you can send the received bitcoins anywhere you like. Based on this I say , 1 confirmation is all what is needed to be on the safe side.

Why would you choose to accept a 5% chance of losing your coins? The moment money and being anonymous get together, there will be people trying to scam you.

There is another possibility: an Orphaned block can happen:
I don't know how often this happens though.

if the transaction has a high priority with enough fee and zero confirmation it is surely going to be confirmed soon, so there is nothing to worry about and double spending such a tx is not common nor easy to get confirmed on the second one.

also 1 confirmation is more than enough, more is not necessary. the possibility of an orphan block is so low you have nothing to worry about.
there was a topic about it here if i can find it i will post here later.

Normally, just seeing the BTC amount appear in your wallet is enough, even with 0 confirmations. The reason most sites require at least 2 confirmations is because there is still a very very small chance that you could double spend (you spend the same amount twice) and they end up not getting the BTC. Such a scenario is not very common at all though, sites only require 2 confirmations as a precautionary measure. If a reputable site is sending you BTC, you can pretty much relax the second you see the BTC in your wallet, even with 0 confirmations.

Hey all.  Question on this.  I receive btc from someone due to some very small cashback that i get.  I had looked into my electrum and saw a very small amount of bitcoin unconfirmed and i'm positive that was the cashback i was suppose to get.  I then did a few bitcoin transactions around this time though... receiving from a site and sending to another site.


Later on... i noticed that very small amount of bitcoin doesn't show up anymore in my electrum.  Can someone explain this?  I had messaged the person that send me these small amount of bitcoin usually as its the very small cashback i get to see if he did send me bitcoin or not recently.  I was pretty positive i saw the 0.08XXXXX amount of bitcoin that showed as unconfirmed in my electrum. 

You can add your electrum xpub to wallet watcher like blockonomics and subscribe to email notifications . It will mail you after your transaction has got 2 confirmations on bitcoin blockchain.