Bitcoin Forum

Other => Beginners & Help => Topic started by: msweb on July 24, 2012, 02:12:06 PM



Title: transaction verify without confirmations
Post by: msweb on July 24, 2012, 02:12:06 PM
Isn't it possible to verify transactions without any confirmations? I know a little bit about the double-spending issue but I'm not really sure if I got this right. A 'double-spend' means do a transaction twice, so it's the same amount of coins to the same address within a short time, right? Or is it more? If not then the first transaction an address received can't be a second of a double-spending attack, right? So there is a way to verify transactions without any confirmations as long as you use a new address for every transaction to receive money with fastest possible verification. Or did I get something completely wrong here?


Title: Re: transaction verify without confirmations
Post by: Foxpup on July 24, 2012, 07:43:16 PM
No, you got something completely wrong. :) A double-spend is two transactions sending the same coins to two different addresses. Only one of the two transactions can possibly be accepted as valid, and as soon as one of them is confirmed, the other one becomes invalid. And if the now invalid transaction was payment for goods or services that you already delivered without waiting for confirmation of the transaction, you just got ripped off. There is no way to know, short of waiting for confirmations, whether a double-spend has taken place or is about to take place.


Title: Re: transaction verify without confirmations
Post by: msweb on July 24, 2012, 09:23:25 PM
Oh, ok. Thanks for the explanation. But it's the same sender address, right?


Title: Re: transaction verify without confirmations
Post by: Foxpup on July 25, 2012, 09:21:08 AM
Right.