Bitcoin Forum

Bitcoin => Bitcoin Technical Support => Topic started by: epii on March 25, 2011, 08:01:51 AM



Title: 0/unconfirmed status but no unconfirmed transaction
Post by: epii on March 25, 2011, 08:01:51 AM
I've attempted my first "send" transaction, of 0.10 BTC to witcoin.  It's just sitting there with 0/unconfirmed status, which sounds like a common problem for small transactions (I've waited just shy of an hour so far).  The thing that alarms me is that, searching for the sending and receiving addresses, I cannot find my transaction in this list: http://bitcoincharts.com/bitcoin/

Is that a bad sign?

Sending addresses: 1P1qHQihBHB1... and 1KARXJGMUJIB...
Receiving address:  1Hrh8Y8ejWAp...


Title: Re: 0/unconfirmed status but no unconfirmed transaction
Post by: epii on March 25, 2011, 08:20:37 AM
Okay, it just showed up in the unconfirmed transactions list.  Is the ~one-hour delay expected behaviour?


Title: Re: 0/unconfirmed status but no unconfirmed transaction
Post by: theymos on March 25, 2011, 08:24:48 AM
It usually shows up instantly. Maybe Bitcoin failed to send it the first time, and it just resent it now.


Title: Re: 0/unconfirmed status but no unconfirmed transaction
Post by: deadlizard on March 25, 2011, 08:26:02 AM
I've sent pennies with less than 5 minutes wait for the first 2 confirmations. I doubt the size is the problem.
1 hour would be quite alarming for me, but I'm very new so I hope such a long wait isn't a regular thing ...


Title: Re: 0/unconfirmed status but no unconfirmed transaction
Post by: epii on March 25, 2011, 08:38:55 AM
1 hour would be quite alarming for me, but I'm very new so I hope such a long wait isn't a regular thing ...

Well, I'm hunkering down and not getting my hopes up that the transaction will be confirmed in the next 24 hours.  The hour delay was for it to even show up as unconfirmed!

It's possible it didn't get sent at first, but it'd be odd, because I restarted the client twice with that theory, but it still didn't show up in the list for probably 20 minutes after my second restart.  My client shows that the money was sent at 7:08 UTC, while Bitcoin Charts reports the transaction at 8:16 UTC.

Edit:  Speak of the devil, it got its first confirmation (http://blockexplorer.com/tx/1cb8426ad793c85d9abed174a7ae80e2ec43105f270806d016be37c3f05c2823) while I was writing that.  However, it still shows up as 0/unconfirmed in my client.  Hrm.

Edit:  Now the confirmations show up in the client too.  Guess I'm just impatient.


Title: Re: 0/unconfirmed status but no unconfirmed transaction
Post by: error on March 25, 2011, 04:29:56 PM
Transactions sent without a fee have a lower priority than transactions which include a fee, and some miners refuse to include no-fee transactions at all. So if you send Bitcoins with no fee, then the transaction will wait until someone finds a block who also accepts free transactions.


Title: Re: 0/unconfirmed status but no unconfirmed transaction
Post by: epii on March 25, 2011, 04:40:18 PM
Transactions sent without a fee have a lower priority than transactions which include a fee, and some miners refuse to include no-fee transactions at all. So if you send Bitcoins with no fee, then the transaction will wait until someone finds a block who also accepts free transactions.

That would make sense, except my transaction was processed almost immediately once it showed up in the "unconfirmed" list on BitcoinCharts.  I doubt the lack of a transaction fee delayed my transaction being "unconfirmed".


Title: Re: 0/unconfirmed status but no unconfirmed transaction
Post by: theymos on March 25, 2011, 06:21:02 PM
It's possible it didn't get sent at first, but it'd be odd, because I restarted the client twice with that theory, but it still didn't show up in the list for probably 20 minutes after my second restart.  My client shows that the money was sent at 7:08 UTC, while Bitcoin Charts reports the transaction at 8:16 UTC.

That might explain why it took so long. Bitcoin resends transactions 5-30 minutes after it starts, so restarting it will delay resends.


Title: Re: 0/unconfirmed status but no unconfirmed transaction
Post by: epii on March 25, 2011, 06:27:27 PM
It's possible it didn't get sent at first, but it'd be odd, because I restarted the client twice with that theory, but it still didn't show up in the list for probably 20 minutes after my second restart.  My client shows that the money was sent at 7:08 UTC, while Bitcoin Charts reports the transaction at 8:16 UTC.

That might explain why it took so long. Bitcoin resends transactions 5-30 minutes after it starts, so restarting it will delay resends.

Huh, no way!  I just assumed it'd do all of its sending right away when it started, and then in intervals of several minutes thereafter.  Is there a reason for this behaviour?


Title: Re: 0/unconfirmed status but no unconfirmed transaction
Post by: theymos on March 25, 2011, 06:47:32 PM
Huh, no way!  I just assumed it'd do all of its sending right away when it started, and then in intervals of several minutes thereafter.  Is there a reason for this behaviour?

It wants to randomize the resend times so it's not obvious that you own the transactions.


Title: Re: 0/unconfirmed status but no unconfirmed transaction
Post by: epii on March 25, 2011, 06:51:35 PM
But does it normally send immediately if you initiate a transaction while the client is already up and running?


Title: Re: 0/unconfirmed status but no unconfirmed transaction
Post by: theymos on March 25, 2011, 07:11:13 PM
But does it normally send immediately if you initiate a transaction while the client is already up and running?

Yes. The resend randomization probably doesn't help anonymity much.