Speeding up transactions

[User365]

I really like bitcoin, but am very annoyed about the time it takes to confirm a transaction and the fee.

There are two ways to solve this problem, increasing block size to f.e. 2MB and SegWit.

I heard somewhere that SegWit is on it´s way, how about increasing blocksize? Or is there another option?

When will this problem be solved?

[alani123]

SegWit is indeed on its way with the August 1st fork. It is looking to solve this by going forward with SegWit along with other implementations to improve bitcoin through a soft fork and miner support.

[Nicol3]

SegWit is indeed on its way with the August 1st fork. It is looking to solve this by going forward with SegWit along with other implementations to improve bitcoin through a soft fork and miner support.

Yes, I've read this somewhere too. I think everyone or mostly are waiting for the Segwit on the 1st of August.

[User365]

How can you be so sure that it will happen on 1.August ?

only ~ 34% of the last blocks have signalized segwit support (https://coin.dance/blocks)
That would mean hardforking, and that would be not good  

[valentinvichnal]

Why does it take so long to confirm a bitcoin trasanction?

The last time I used bitcoin was a year ago, all my transactions got confirmed within 1 hour, I bought bitcoin again because a site declined my credit cards and the only alternative payment was bitcoin.
I sent the bitcoins using blockchain.info and set the recommended fees, took a half day to receive the first confirmation.

[cz3kit]

SegWit is indeed on its way with the August 1st fork. It is looking to solve this by going forward with SegWit along with other implementations to improve bitcoin through a soft fork and miner support.

Is it going to be a soft fork for SegWit or will be there somewhere a hard fork on the way? I read somewhere that it might be a hard fork but I didn't want to believe it.

I was also already thinking about the transaction speed problem. I hope it will get better soon.

[pixie85]

Another thread about the same thing. I've seen at least 10 similar ones where people were crying about transaction times and fees. Guess what, whining won't make your transaction confirm faster and it won't lower the fees. We are all aware of the problems and block size debates and we are all hoping for it to get resolved.

[jtipt]

How can you be so sure that it will happen on 1.August ?

only ~ 34% of the last blocks have signalized segwit support (https://coin.dance/blocks)
That would mean hardforking, and that would be not good  

Yeah exactly that's what my concern is.  Segwit still doesn't have the support that it need, so again it's going to be either hardfork or no Segwit and both of them are not good outcomes.

[Qartada]

How can you be so sure that it will happen on 1.August ?

only ~ 34% of the last blocks have signalized segwit support (https://coin.dance/blocks)
That would mean hardforking, and that would be not good  

You could have found this out if you'd just looked at nearly all of the recent threads, but...

On August 1st, there will be a Bitcoin Improvement Proposal called BIP 148.  This is a User Activated Soft Fork (UASF).

If 50% hashrate doesn't signal BIP 148 support by that point (it won't), there will be a chain split and you will have an equal number of coins on each chain - the BIP 148 chain will have SegWit.  For a while it'll be a complete clusterfuck to find a dominant chain unless BIP 148 has obviously failed, and in my view it won't actually work and the legacy chain will stay as the majority chain.

The point of the split is for the economic majority to decide whether SegWit is worth it, because in the long run miners have to act based on their economic interests or they run out of money.
BITMAIN has given opposition to this in the form of a "User Activated Hard Fork", which I regard to be pretty evil.  You can read about it on their blog post.  If this chain is created, they will almost certainly be capable of 51% attacks on it for a long time.

[User365]

How can you be so sure that it will happen on 1.August ?

only ~ 34% of the last blocks have signalized segwit support (https://coin.dance/blocks)
That would mean hardforking, and that would be not good  

You could have found this out if you'd just looked at nearly all of the recent threads, but...

On August 1st, there will be a Bitcoin Improvement Proposal called BIP 148.  This is a User Activated Soft Fork (UASF).

If 50% hashrate doesn't signal BIP 148 support by that point (it won't), there will be a chain split and you will have an equal number of coins on each chain - the BIP 148 chain will have SegWit.  For a while it'll be a complete clusterfuck to find a dominant chain unless BIP 148 has obviously failed, and in my view it won't actually work and the legacy chain will stay as the majority chain.

The point of the split is for the economic majority to decide whether SegWit is worth it, because in the long run miners have to act based on their economic interests or they run out of money.
BITMAIN has given opposition to this in the form of a "User Activated Hard Fork", which I regard to be pretty evil.  You can read about it on their blog post.  If this chain is created, they will almost certainly be capable of 51% attacks on it for a long time.

Do I have to download another blockchain, or what does that mean for me?
At the moment I am using Bitcoin Core 14.1