Bitcoin Forum

I just made my first bitcoin transaction of 10$:

Now I have a question. Coinbase.com generated me an address just for me, I sent the money from my electrum wallet and... boom! Immediately the site started showing "Loading your payment". How?? How did the network updated so fast?

Now it's writing this:
https://i.imgur.com/mG0upOC.png

I put 2.2 satoshi per byte, do you think it's fine? I couldn't go more, not enough funds.

Bitcoin propagation takes seconds. Nodes around the network should be able to see that you've made this transaction quickly.

Confirmations, on the other hand is different. By verifying, coinbase is talking about confirmations. With 2 satoshis per byte, it would take forever for it to be confirmed given current network conditions. (The current median fees is roughly 60 to 70 satoshis)

When you say forever?  :'(

Can I somehow cancel my transaction then?

The backlog of transaction is huge and I doubt miners would get to your transaction anytime soon. Could you provide us with your TXID?

My transaction id?

11acf3887ab8d8ba3a607784eca42b39fab0f385abfdf6812d59055207d95eab

Your transaction has opt-in RBF enabled which is good as it allows you to send a replacement transaction from your Electrum. If you would like to continue with it, right-click on your transaction in Electrum and select 'bump fee'. You'll be given a slider to increase your fees to make it confirm faster.

Yes, it'll cost quite a bit extra as compared to your current fees but your current fees would result in quite a long wait before your transaction gets confirmed. If you'd like, you can choose to not follow the steps and wait for the transaction backlog to be cleared before your transaction gets confirmed.

Can you give me an example of how much I'll wait?

The only way to "cancel" a transaction is to double spend, for example create a new transaction using the same the inputs, and setting it to a higher fee.  Electrum doesn't provide that option through it's gui.  I imagine there's a way to double spend using the console, but I do not know those commands.

As said above, there you can increase the fee for your current transaction, which will actually create a new transaction with higher fees.  The transaction with the higher fee has a better chance of being included in the next block, and therefore being confirmed sooner.

If you are not in hurry, and you can wait for your transaction to be confirmed.  The worst case scenario is it will be rejected by mempool, and eventually be cancelled.  Odds are it won't take more than a couple of days to be confirmed.

From what I can tell, it would be taking at least two hours, very likely more. There were a few quick blocks in succession just now which helped to clear up the mempool quite a bit. The mempool is building up though.

if coinbase is happy you don't need to bump the fee. besides as you said yourself you can't afford to bump the fee.

it'll confirm in a week or so at the most.

What would happen if I had set the fewest fee? like 1 satoshi. Would I lose my money? But they would go where? Nowhere?

Your transaction would take even longer time to confirm. You wouldn't lose your money. If a transaction is stuck in the mempool for 2 weeks (default value), the transaction is dropped and you can broadcast another one from your wallet. You could try removing your transaction manually from your wallet, but I am quite sure that most nodes would reject your new transaction.

So there is no way to stop the transaction. Only if it will stuck in the mempool... Will I take my money back if it stucks?

You will be able to spend those coins again once your transaction is dropped from other node's mempools. You can't reverse that transaction. You have to either wait for it to be dropped or use RBF to bump the fee.

Do I have to keep the coinbase.com window opened?

No, of course not. You can log in to your coinbase account on a different device and see that your transaction listed as unconfirmed somewhere.

I didn't create any coinbase account. It just showed me an address and the btc amount. That's all. How will I now know that my transaction was confirmed? Through electrum?

You can check it using Electrum or you can copy the transaction ID you posted before and paste it into any block explorer (e.g. blockstream (https://blockstream.info/)). I guess you should also get an e-mail from Coinbase since you paid for something.

Okay I will do that. But about coinbase, I'm telling you I didn't submit any emails.

Coinbase have two apps - an app for their exchange (just called "Coinbase" or "Coinbase Pro") and an app for their standalone wallet (called "Coinbase Wallet").

If you have downloaded their exchange app, then you must either create an account with an email address, or log in to an already existing account.

If you have downloaded their wallet app (which you most likely have), then you will be asked to give a username only and no email address. Since this is a mobile wallet and not an exchange account, you should click on "Settings" and copy your recovery phrase down on to paper.

It seems that the website redirected me to coinbase as a result the username had been submitted.

https://i.imgur.com/6oHZzJz.png

What website are we talking about here? If it wasn't the official Coinbase website, then I would be very careful to make sure you have downloaded the real wallet app and not a malicious clone or look-a-like. There are an endless number of fake wallets out there, some of which look very convincing, and some of which you will find on the Google or Apple app stores.

You should only be downloading wallets or exchange apps direct from the developer or exchange themselves, and you should never be following links on, or downloading things from, random websites.

No no, I sent the bitcoins through electrum wallet. I didn't download any other wallets.

Anyway I now looked how many satoshis I spent for the transaction. I spent 462 and then I remembered I had done a faucetpay.io withdrawal with only 400 satoshis fee. It came within a day. I think this will take that long too.

I was meaning where you download the Coinbase app from, since it seems you didn't know there was difference between their exchange app and their wallet app, and you were unfamiliar with the set up process. It's very risky to have downloaded an app without fully understanding it and immediately send coins to it. This is how people get scammed.

The transaction you linked on the previous page of this thread (11acf3887ab8d8ba3a607784eca42b39fab0f385abfdf6812d59055207d95eab) has already confirmed.

Yep, I just saw it after I submitted the previous post  ;D
So it took 5 hours for 462 satoshis. One question, I remember I had chosen 2.2 per byte. Can I somehow know how many bytes will my transaction be? So I can calculate the whole fee next time.

The whole fee isn't the relevant number when calculating how long it will take a transaction to confirm. The fee per vbyte is the number you want. Blocks can only contain so much data, and so miners will prioritize transactions with the higher fee per vbyte to maximize their profits. Paying 500 sats for a tiny transaction might confirm it very quickly, whereas 500 sats for a larger transaction will take longer.

If you are sending from Electrum again, once you have selected your inputs, outputs, and amount to send, it will automatically calculate the size of the transaction for you. If you click on "Tools", then "Preferences", then select "Edit fees manually", it will then display the size of your transaction next to the "Fee" input box. You should input the fee in sat/byte you wish to use depending on how full the mempool is and how urgent your transaction is, and Electrum will automatically work out the total fee you need to pay.

he's using coinbase at a merchant's site as a payment processor.


it'll confirm in a week or two like i said. if you didn't want to wait you'd have to use your wallet to bump the fee so it confirms faster. here's a guide on how to do that:

https://bitcoinelectrum.com/frequently-asked-questions/#my-bitcoin-transaction-is-not-confirming-what-can-i-do