Relation between (i) confirmation time and (ii) taverage time a block is found.

[Jaap Vriesendorp]

Hi, my name is Jaap and im currently writing my thesis about the legal aspects of bitcoins. I have the following question. I really hope anyone can help me with this problem.

On the internet it says that the average time a block is found is around 10 minutes.

It also says that the average confirmation time for a transaction is around 16 minutes.

However, the confirmation time is calculated upon six confimations (5 new blocks). In my calculation the average confirmation than should be (5*10) 50 minutes in stead of 16 minutes.

How is this possible?

Many thank!

[micaman]

I guess it depends on how many confirmation you require to consider a transaction valid.
Some people, dealing with low transaction values, require only 1 confirmation and so they wait around 10 mins.
Others, dealing with greater values, require all 6 or even more confirmations, and so they have to wait 1h+.

So i believe it is all about your levels of trust.

[cech4204a]

Normally transaction made just now is included in next block, which means that 10 minutes block causes your standard average of waiting 5 minutes, sometimes faster, sometimes slower (once you will create transaction just 5 seconds after block was found, so you will wait for that ongoing block for 10 minutes + 10 for the next one where your transaction is, other time you will create transaction just 5 seconds before block will be found, so you will wait only that ongoing block for 5 seconds + 10 minutes for the next one wher your tx is).
SO if a block takes exactly 10 minutes in average to generate, than you will need exactly in average 15 minutes for tx to be confirmed.