Bitcoin Forum

Disclaimer: I don't have a background in computer science like I assume most of you guys do so forgive me if I sound ignorant

Bitcoin transactions have been too slow for me. It takes at least 20 minutes for a transaction to confirm WITH the standard fee of $0.06 which is already pretty damn high to begin with. Is this a recent development (i.e. blockchain bloat) or is this where Bitcoin is headed?

Sent a TX and within 2 minutes it was confirmed. The amount was only 0.0189btc and I paid a fee of 0.0002.

It takes on average 10 minutes to receive 1 confirmation on a transaction that pays a reasonable transaction fee.  This is neither "a recent development" nor "where Bitcoin is headed".  It is the intrinsic design of Bitcoin.  It is how it has always been, and how it is likely to always be.

"On average" is not a guarantee that any particular block of transactions will be confirmed in exactly 10 minutes.  Block solving is a random process, and as such it is possible at times to have a few blocks solved within seconds of each other, or for there to be a period of an hour or more between two blocks.

There are many circumstances where accepting a transaction without confirmations is acceptable.  There are other situations where waiting for confirmations is not a burden.  If your needs don't fall into either of these categories, then you need to look into third party services that will guarantee faster transactions.

Transactions are nearly instantaneous, less than a few seconds and they'll reach most of the network. With fees, once that occurs, the circumstances where they wouldn't confirm are few.  Confirmations, as DH said, take an average of 10 minutes.  In most cases, for low value transactions, zero confirmations are acceptable.

For high value, confirmations are always recommended, the higher the value, the more confirmations in my book.

There are many situations where even high value transactions can be accepted with 0 confirmations.

As long as you have a trust relationship with the payer, or a very high ability to repossess the product or service that was exchanged, there is little need to wait for confirmations.

True.

Well I think transactions are not too slow... we just want too much sometimes :P

5-10-15-20 min... whatever :) I can wait that long :P ♥BTC

Paying right tx fee just guarantee that's it will be in the next block (sometimes not enough thought, eg: the minimal of 0.0001)

That is never guaranteed.

Thank you for the responses. My concern isn't with real life applications (i.e. purchasing something from a store). I understand 0 confirmations is okay.

There has just been a number of instances lately online where it has taken me upwards of 30 minutes to an hour to get a single confirmation. Not to mention the services I use require at least 3 confirmations (exchanges) -- it can get annoying.

The worst part is I send this with a $0.06 fee. You think it would receive some kind of priority.

That would depend on the specifics of the transaction.

If the transaction is larger than 1 kilobyte, then most miners (and mining pools) won't assign it any higher priority than a transaction that pays no transaction fee at all.  Most miners (and mining pools) treat anything less than 0.0001 BTC per kilobye as equivalent to no fee at all.

If the transaction is smaller than 1 kilobyte, then it will be prioritized, but higher paying transactions will have higher priority.  Additionally, it is entirely possible that your transaction was included in the very next block, but that it took 30 minutes to an hour for the next block to be solved.

There has been a number of instances lately where I have deposit a check in my bank account and it has taken me upwards of 3 days before I could spend the money.

Not to mentioned that the services I use require at least 3 days of confirmations (exchange like Ameritrade) before I can use the money over there -- it can get annoying.

Not any more.  Since the transaction malleability problem, the trend is against accepting transactions without confirmation.

Spending unconfirmed change is also on the way out, again due to the transaction malleability problem. In the latest Qt client, "Don't spend unconfirmed change" is an option, although not yet enabled by default. When you send a transaction, your "change" from the transaction is unconfirmed, usually for an hour or so. So some part of your account balance will be tied up for an hour each time you do a transaction. This can limit how fast you can do transactions from a single wallet.

Furthermore, there are many transactions where the profit margin is high enough and the fraud risk is low enough that 0 confirmation transactions can be accepted.

I've been accepting (and continue to do so) 0 confirmation transactions for what must be about 2 years now. I've never had any problems whatsoever. Ultimately it comes down to the transaction value, and the service in question. As an example, I use 0 confirmations to accept payment for web hosting. If it doesn't confirm or there's a double spend, I can simply cancel their account. No big deal.

Bitcoin transactions are really slow, and i think that it is really bad.

I began to mine and trade Bellacoin to get faster transaction about 2min and also a coin with hugh potential.