Why Didn't Satoshi Think About Instant Confirmations?

[sgk]

Well...   not actually "instant", but he could have though of 'faster' transaction confirmations.

When someone of his skills and imagination is on his path to create a decentralized digital currency, how is the transaction times are not given the most important thought process? I'm sure it isn't hard to imagine instant transactions in today's worls when email is the medium of daily communication which delivers messages in matter of seconds?


EDIT:
Had to change "Transactions" to "Confirmations" in title since it was a slightly misleading in terms of what I wanted to convey.

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[unamis76]

That's how he envisioned and created Bitcoin. The transactions are instant. However, confirmations are not...

[MCHouston]

Transactions are instant, are you referring to confirmation?

I have done a lot of transactions all happens in usually 1-2 seconds or less.

[LiteCoinGuy]

Transactions are instant, are you referring to confirmation?

I have done a lot of transactions all happens in usually 1-2 seconds or less.

confirmed 

[JerryCurlzzz]

The problem is with vendors/sites that force you to wait for multiple confirmations -- the worst are ones that still make you wait for 6 confirmations. I could see it if we were still in 2010... but zero confirmation transactions should be the norm. See: Bitpay.

[vrm86]

The problem is with vendors/sites that force you to wait for multiple confirmations -- the worst are ones that still make you wait for 6 confirmations. I could see it if we were still in 2010... but zero confirmation transactions should be the norm. See: Bitpay.

I've seen it on luckyb.it for the first time. Is there any practical reason for requiring confirmations?

[SmartIphone]

I read somewhere(cant remember now) that Crypto 2.0 has instant transactions like stellar, ripple that's why bitcoin should be updated to 2.0

[MF Doom]

I believe companies like coinbase make their transactions "off blockchain" so they happen instantly, then push all transactions out afterwards.  someone correct me if i'm wrong

[unamis76]

The problem is with vendors/sites that force you to wait for multiple confirmations -- the worst are ones that still make you wait for 6 confirmations. I could see it if we were still in 2010... but zero confirmation transactions should be the norm. See: Bitpay.

I've seen it on luckyb.it for the first time. Is there any practical reason for requiring confirmations?

Guaranteeing the funds aren't double spent, or there isn't any attack that can reverse or redirect funds. Just a security precaution that can be used with our current PoW scheme

I read somewhere(cant remember now) that Crypto 2.0 has instant transactions like stellar, ripple that's why bitcoin should be updated to 2.0

I guess Bitcoin is already updated then

[Lorenzo]

Well...   not actually "instant", but he could have though of 'faster' transactions.

When someone of his skills and imagination is on his path to create a decentralized digital currency, how is the transaction times are not given the most important thought process? I'm sure it isn't hard to imagine instant transactions in today's worls when email is the medium of daily communication which delivers messages in matter of seconds?

As the posters above already said, transactions are pretty much instantaneous but confirmations take 10 minutes each on average. Here's a post by Satoshi where he discusses the feasibility of a shorter block generation times (and thus shorter confirmation times):

I thought about that but there wasn't a practical way to do smaller increments.  The frequency of block generation is balanced between confirming transactions as fast as possible and the latency of the network.

The algorithm aims for an average of 6 blocks per hour.  If it was 5 bc and 60 per hour, there would be 10 times as many blocks and the initial block download would take 10 times as long. It wouldn't work anyway because that would be only 1 minute average between blocks, too close to the broadcast latency when the network gets larger.

Confirmations can be made faster by increasing the rate at which new blocks are found. Problem is, if new blocks are being generated too quickly then you start to see problems with the blockchain temporarily splitting due to network propagation delays. According to one figure from 2013, the mean time for a node to see a new block in the network was 12.6 seconds. If two miners oblivious to each other happened to mine blocks simultaneously, one of these blocks will fail to become part of the main chain. This is called an orphan block. The faster the blocks are generated, the more orphan blocks you will get.

Satoshi probably thought 10 minutes was a reasonable trade-off. Seeing as though Litecoin doesn't have any major issues with orphan blocks and orphan chains despite having 2.5 minute blocks vs. Bitcoin's 10 minutes, perhaps his choice was a bit on the conservative side.

[StevenS]

Lately I have been using coffee.foldapp.com to buy Starbucks. It has always worked almost instantly, so they obviously don't wait for a confirmation.

As was mentioned above, the only reason for a merchant to wait for a confirmation is to prevent a double-spend. If I wanted to cheat Foldapp out of my $5 Starbucks drink, I would have to hand-craft a transaction that sent the $5 back to me, then inject both it and the "real" transaction to the network at the same time. However, if I don't insert the transactions at the right place on the network, and the "fake" transaction gets to Foldapp, while the "real" transaction gets to a minor, then if I wanted my latte, I would have to contact Foldapp and explain what happened.

The point being that there isn't a big risk of not waiting for the confirmation to a coffee vendor.

For larger transactions, such as an exchange, it makes more sense to wait for confirmations, but that's more like a stock purchase, where the investor expects the transaction to take a while.

I think these large transactions are analogous to using my PayPal balance to purchase something: The purchase is instant, but it takes 3 days to transfer money from my bank account to my PayPal balance.

[randy8777]

at the moment of releasing the code into the wild he expected the community to take over and include certain features when needed. i guess at some point in the future the core devs will probably make confirmations faster and decrease block rewards.

[Netnox]

It already exists, when you pay with bitcoin in a restaurant you dont have to wait at all, you just scan and done. Although if you are buying an aircraft carrier its better to wait for 6 confirmations.

[SmartIphone]

It already exists, when you pay with bitcoin in a restaurant you dont have to wait at all, you just scan and done. Although if you are buying an aircraft carrier its better to wait for 6 confirmations.

I didnt know that bitcoin is applied in restaurants could you send me any link/video that bitcoin is applied there.

[MicroGuy]

Well...   not actually "instant", but he could have though of 'faster' transactions.

When someone of his skills and imagination is on his path to create a decentralized digital currency, how is the transaction times are not given the most important thought process? I'm sure it isn't hard to imagine instant transactions in today's worls when email is the medium of daily communication which delivers messages in matter of seconds?

When Satoshi left, his work was not finished. You can tell by his last posts he intended to do much more.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=3;sa=showPosts;start=0

Then, he mysteriously vanished with his coins (and the alert keys).

[Netnox]

It already exists, when you pay with bitcoin in a restaurant you dont have to wait at all, you just scan and done. Although if you are buying an aircraft carrier its better to wait for 6 confirmations.

I didnt know that bitcoin is applied in restaurants could you send me any link/video that bitcoin is applied there.

Just search youtube paying with bitcoin, there are plenty if you check www.coinmap.org you can see all of restaurants worldwide that accept btc.

[neurotypical]

I remember he predicted almost everything, including the transaction confirmation time and the centralization of mining over time. Transactions itselves are instant tho.

[thrax]

I read somewhere(cant remember now) that Crypto 2.0 has instant transactions like stellar, ripple that's why bitcoin should be updated to 2.0

Stellar had a flawed consensus protocol that led to a fork. It was temporarily resolved by running the whole Stellar network on a single verifying node, which is not decentralized. Stellar and Ripple have not been tested as long as Bitcoin and can only prove they are as reliable by running for years without problems.

http://www.coindesk.com/stability-questions-dog-ripple-protocol-stellar-fork/

[knowhow]

the thing to be instant would be good but well double spent would be a nice moove soo better stay with confirmations.... soo lets say in a restaurant would be good just to see the transaction that appears in minutes on the wallet confirmation can take 30 minutes or less 

[jbrnt]

When someone of his skills and imagination is on his path to create a decentralized digital currency, how is the transaction times are not given the most important thought process?

He imagined instant transactions and all will be confirmed after 10 minutes on average. That is a fairly quick system. I know sometimes we can't even get 1 confirmation in an hour, that's to do with luck and difficulty mechanism.