Why does it take so long to confirm?

[PilotofBTC]

Confirmation time really depends. I had transactions which had 1-2 confirmations in 3 minutes, and transactions where I waited for around 10 minutes.  When this a big transaction it really does get on your nerves

It also depends on when you send the transaction. If you send it seconds after the last block then you are probably going to have to wait ~10 mins for your first confirm. If you send ~9 minutes after that last block, then you are probably going to only wait ~1 mins for your first confirm.

If you trust the network then you shouldn't be nervous about it. once your tx shows on the blockchain you can be sure it will be confirmed.

[Testing123]

It also depends on when you send the transaction. If you send it seconds after the last block then you are probably going to have to wait ~10 mins for your first confirm. If you send ~9 minutes after that last block, then you are probably going to only wait ~1 mins for your first confirm.

Indeed, the block times follow exponential distribution.
So, after waiting for 5 minutes, the expected time to find the next block doesn't change at all.

[blumangroup]

I want to make a trade, I sent btc to my account on an exchange, and it got 1 confirmation but then nothing, so its still pending.
I've been waiting more than an hour. Why does it take so long to confirm payments in the chain?

Generally speaking most exchanges require at least 6 confirmations before the BTC will be available.

[Gimmelfarb]

I want to make a trade, I sent btc to my account on an exchange, and it got 1 confirmation but then nothing, so its still pending.
I've been waiting more than an hour. Why does it take so long to confirm payments in the chain?

Generally speaking most exchanges require at least 6 confirmations before the BTC will be available.

some require only 3. i trade on bitfinex, and when i deposited coins from cold storage, i remember them being available after 3 confirmations. it's possible i'm remembering wrong though.... cryptsy can take like 20 confirmations because their system/db is so slow.

[Harley997]

I want to make a trade, I sent btc to my account on an exchange, and it got 1 confirmation but then nothing, so its still pending.
I've been waiting more than an hour. Why does it take so long to confirm payments in the chain?

Most exchanges will require a transaction to have at least 6 confirmations prior to confirming a deposit. This is to allow them to mitigate the risk that the chain that contains the transaction does not get orphaned. It is very similar to waiting for a check to clear but the process takes on average one hour verses days or possibly weeks for checks.

[ajareselde]

its sometimes insanely slow, coz some btc rounds can be long, takes you down sometimes, especialy if you are trying to arb prices on multiple exchanges
just bare with it, it will get confirmed

cheers