Bitcoin Forum

What is going on with confirmation lately? I normally just use blockchain.info to send and add fees whenever it warns me I need a fee. Lately when I send my coins they have been getting stuck with 0 confirmations for a LONG time. Right now I have a transaction that is coming up on 20 hours. Blockchain never warned me I needed I fee. I sent another transaction where I used custom send and filled out a fee of 0.0001 and it went through quickly.

This has been happenly a lot... Is the network starting to move away from accepting any free transactions or something? This is not good...

i sent with .12 fee hoping it would speed it up. and it a fucking joke how long its taking.

Big mistake to not put at least some reward.

i might start sending all mine with a minimum of a 1-5$ fee and see if it helps to get things moving faster.

I think this is a bug if come sort. I sent a transaction that should have had a fee automatically added but I didn't double check and now it's going to just hang in mid air for a few days.

Truth be told I was sending coins to the exchange to sell, maybe I would have caught the top, maybe not. Anyway, I told myself earlier to not sell, so I am just taking it as karma.  :-)

There are two reasons that can delay your transactions at the moment.

• No transaction fee. (I believe double minimum will cause it to be put in extra area, if the miner uses the default configuration.)
• Address reuse. (Some miners will delay transactions that reuse addresses to discourage this practice. Blockchain.info reuses addresses.)

It seems that Bitcoin reached it's first soft limit yesterday - the block size limit. It's actually 1 mb, but for whatever reason some pools set it to 0.25 mb or 0.5 mb. Another btctalker said the standard client uses 0.25 mb.

Other threads:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=338452.msg3634352#msg3634352
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=338793.msg3634344#msg3634344

Why #2? Miner really check if the adresses are reused? What incentive do the have to do this extra effort?

It is a response to the coin blacklisting talks. From what I understand, it is only being tested.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=334316.0
(some quality responses in that thread btw)

Why should I as a miner do this? This costs extra computing time = less blocks = less profit.

Agree, there is a problem with blockchain. I have set to automatically include miner fee but a transaction went out without a fee and is stuck for over two days now.

all of you using blockchain.info wallets. vanity addresses or simply an address that has been reused. please thank Luke JR for the delays

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=334316.0

it is also worth noting that the poll has been formed to trick people into agreeing. if you disagree call luke an idiot or say "if its from luke it cant be good.( the red choices):

You're an idiot, don't do this!   - 97 (41.6%)
I don't like this, but I agree we need to move forward with it.   - 21 (9%)
We should have waited longer, but I guess it needs to move forward now.   - 20 (8.6%)
Great, it's about time!   - 36 (15.5%)
You're a hero, let's get this deployed everywhere ASAP!   - 43 (18.5%)
If it's from Luke, it can't be any good.   - 16 (6.9%)

its been said in this message https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=334316.msg3606605#msg3606605
that the "i dont like this" and "we should have waited longer" are also responses that in the end agree to the delays...

and as a separate consensus in other conversations that the only true disagree to protocol statements (red choices) look to be personal vendetta's against luke thus should not really count, meaning its all designed to force a yes vote

Those suggesting that we should have included a fee, please understand that with the iOS Blockchain.info app [for instance], you just press "send."

You can log in with a web-browser and set your fees to "generous" but this still does not fix the problem.  Blockchain.info simply sends 0-fee transactions once and a while (I suppose when the transaction has a high-priority, e.g., old coins).

Blockchain.info wallets are very friendly to new users, but having transactions still unconfirmed after 24 hours may give new users the impression that "bitcoin is buggy."

piuk:  if you are reading this, is there some way we can always include *at least* a 0.0001 BTC fee?

This is emphatically not true.  The long confirmation times are affecting 0-fee transactions, not ones with re-used addresses.  This problem had been noted before Luke introduced his patch.  

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=327927
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=327818
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=327821

Also, Luke's patch can *only* affect what transactions get included in blocks found by Luke JR's pool (eliguis)!  

The default block rules only allow 27KB (~60 avg sized txs) of free txs.   I would strongly recommend paying the min fee (0.1mBTC) even on tx which can be "free" (high priority) or accept that it can be hours or days before your free tx is confirmed a charity.

Pools prioritize tx by fee per KB and 99.9% of tx paying a fee pay the min (0.1 mBTC) so you may want to consider making your default fee slightly higher (like 0.1001 mBTC). :)  My tx are almost (~95% of time) included in the next block.

Thanks D&T for those precise numbers.  The problem for a lot of us is that we use the Blockchain.info app for iOS (does Android have the same problem?) and we can't force the app to include a 0.0001 BTC fee.  

I think piuk would have to address this problem.

Well if you have a broken wallet your only options are
a) stop using it
b) advocate the author fix it (although since piuk STILL uses GPU numbers for one of his miner profit charts I wouldn't hold your breath)
c) do both

It is a way to encourage better practice in the whole network, at a small loss for the miner.

Potentially to show regulators that there is something that the network could do, should there be an attempt to blacklist coins.

For more details you would need to read the thread. Like I said, it appears to be temporary for testing purposes.

Correction there is no cost to the miner.

Miners ALREADY prioritize txs for selection into the next block.  The patch simply changes the rules on how they will be prioritized.

Won't it delay some TX that would have payed a fee?

Possibly but many miners are curently capping block size anyways as current fees don't justify the increased risk of orphans on larger block.  So right now there are paying tx NOT being included in the next block.  In many cases picking paying tx A over paying tx B isn't going to cause a net change in revenue.

That may change in the future, it remains to be seen.

b) advocate the author fix it (although since piuk STILL uses GPU numbers for one of his miner profit charts I wouldn't hold your breath)

This is the reason I am leaving these comments.

a) stop using it

The concern is new users.  AFAIK, this is the only mobile wallet for iOS.  A lot of people coming into bitcoin now will never install a wallet on the computer.  They want something simple for their phone.  

c) do both

Or better: work on new payment solutions to make it easier and more secure for new users to participate in the bitcoin economy!
  

I just checked the blockchain wallet in the browser.


Under Custom you can enter a miner's fee. That does not work?

Yes, but only from a web browser.  This is not an option with the mobile app.

All blockchain.info apps and the web wallet will not include a transaction fee automatically if the priority of the transaction is less than 57 million (https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Transaction_fees). This has worked fine in the past however the recent transaction spike (https://blockchain.info/charts/n-transactions) means there is no block space left for free transactions, causing them to be significantly delayed.

An update to the web interface will be deployed shortly so a fee will always be included if there is more than 1000 unconfirmed transactions in blockchain.info's memory pool. Therefore at none "peak times", such as weekends, there is possibility that some transactions can still be made for free.

The iPhone app will take much longer to update (it also does not respect the fee policy set in the [Account Settings] of the web interface). I'm sorry there isn't much that can be done about that.

Talk about service: post a comment and get a response from the creator of the wallet himself!  

You have made an enormous contribution to bitcoin, piuk.  Thanks for everything!


May I ask why you can't do much about it?  Is it a technical problem, an issue with politics at Apple, or something else?

EDIT: is there a way to donate to blockchain.info?  I couldn't find anything on the website. 

Typo?  I think you mean >57 million.


Agreed that is a large part of the problem.


That sounds like a partial solution however why not also have a check box that says "include 0.1 mBTC fee per KB for faster processing"?
This provides a black and white simple to understand choice for users.

Calculate it based on the total sum size of the transactions, not the number of them.

In the past we have been afraid of updating the app due to Apple's anti bitcoin policy. It seems like this policy may have changed now though.

Any donations appreciated 16gKb8fYGdvrmuMmir6mQG5MN6nUroriF3


Really the application should be able to determine the appropriate transaction fee better than the user (don't forget many users will not even know what KB means). There is always the custom send form if you want to choose the fee manually.

 

Makes sense. May be something along the lines of:

Allow Free = if (Target Number of Blocks To Confirm By * Average Block Size 24 Hours) > (Total Unconfirmed Tx Size With Higher Priority Than My Transaction)