Coinbase transactions taking hours to confirm. Is it competing with snail mail?

[rudystyle]

I am just a regular user of bitcoin. I use bitcoin to buy mostly digital goods from online stores. I am not a geek nor an investor.

So this morning I paid at one of the online stores for a PC game using bitcoin ($10). There was a choice of paypal or bitcoin. I chose bitcoin and paid using my coinbase account. Its now 5 hours , transaction is not yet confirmed and I still don't have my game. If I had used paypal I could have got the game immediately and maybe by now finished half the game.
So all this hype about crypto currency seems confounding since I have to wait 6 hours for the shop keeper to check whether my money is genuine.

Is bitcoin competing with snail mail or paypal/credit cards which have instant verification. I don't think I am going to use bitcoin again if I am able to pay with paypal, cant wait for so long, not in this day and age atleast.

Bitcoin looks like a step backwards and meant for a niche audience only-geeks,speculators and mafias


MOD NOTE:
Changed the title to better reflect the issue at hand, this isn't a problem with bitcoin but Coinbase.

[Buffer Overflow]

Did you attach the correct fee to the transaction?

[Inedible]

Did you attach the correct fee to the transaction?

Just to clarify, you only need to attach a fee if you're in a rush or need your transaction completed quickly, which OP is.

[tclo]

It could be Coinbase at fault and not bitcoin network.  I've had some issues with them as well.

[Buffer Overflow]

What's the transaction ID, so we can have a look?

[someguy123]

It could be Coinbase at fault and not bitcoin network.  I've had some issues with them as well.

I would definitely say Coinbase is just awful. I prefer services that use Bitpay, because generally it's actually INSTANT.
In some cases, e.g. Namecheap, they use BitPay, but you have to wait 6 confirms, but unlike Coinbase you don't get stuck on the payment page, where it tries to tell you that you haven't even paid for the product yet.

[notserp]

been waiting over 12 hours for a transfer, first time using them since they took 3 days to transfer lol fuk coinbase

[KingOfSports]

Guys,
In most of these cases for one reason or another Coinbase has not sent out your transaction. Most likely hot wallet being empty or just something wrong with it. Your sending to another bitcoin address is only actually sent when you the "advanced details" blue text at the bottom of the transaction info. You'll see the whole transaction in the bitcoin network. When you do not see the "advanced details" then your transfer has not been sent. This delay is due to coinbase not by the bitcoin network. When sending BTC from coinbase it honestly seems random, sometimes they send your coins in 5 minutes, sometimes 5 hours. Also, when sending from coinbase, for whatever reason transactions will not show up on the blockchain until they have rec'd 1 confirmation. I hope this answers some of your questions guys and good luck to all of you.

[🏰 TradeFortress 🏰]

Then stop using them

[statdude]

Coinbase is deceptive in that they make it appear when you click send, you're sending new bitcoins that are in your account. In reality, your bitcoins are NOT yet available, unlike BTCQuick.