Coinbase co-founder claimed it takes seconds for a transaction to confirm!!!

[GermanGiant]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uvbAlCFMSk

Well... apart from this, it was a beautiful corporate presentation.

[StevenS]

Maybe by "confirm" he means "confirm that the transaction has reached several nodes on the Bitcoin network, and thus is in the pool of transactions to be included in a future block."

[Cxinbolen]

Maybe by "confirm" he means "confirm that the transaction has reached several nodes on the Bitcoin network, and thus is in the pool of transactions to be included in a future block."

I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case. If it took only seconds to confirm transactions, that would mean that tons of blocks would be mined every second.

[jubalix]

he just probably means zero confirms...and is talking to the masses.

I mean zero confirms....you kinda have to be in BTC for a while before that makes scene.

[jonald_fyookball]

he misspoke, don't get your panties in a wad.

[allthingsluxury]

Yah, I think he simply misspoke, thats all. Good presentation overall.

[Hugroll]

Video seems interesting, gonna watch it when I get the time.

[coinzat]

We can change "seconds" to minutes and the sentence will be completely right

[jacktheking]

We can change "seconds" to minutes and the sentence will be completely right

Not really. We need to change "couple seconds" to "10 minutes" to make it right.

[Klestin]

Not really. We need to change "couple seconds" to "10 minutes" to make it right.

Or change "confirm" to "validate".

[Swordsoffreedom]

Zero confirm is a confirm
It meant that it was relayed and acknowledged as a transaction, it's kind of assumed after you have been in Bitcoin for a while the confirmations are in 10 minute blocks.
(Double spend and the rest aside)

That said a terminology change makes sense I prefer calling it validate.

[btcscriptpremium]

When comparing us to other currencies/payment solutions, we should use the "send transaction in seconds" because 1. if we say 10 minutes people might think thats too long, and 2. what MOST people use it for (not bitcointalk ponzi schemes), is family or buying store, and they don't care about waiting for confirms if their primary use is spending.

[spazzdla]

For most purposes it only takes seconds to confirm as zero but broadcasted is enough.

[RGBKey]

You'll notice sites like bitpay will automatically mark something as paid as long as the payment contains the right fee and doesn't appear to be malicious.

[ranochigo]

If he is talking about coinbase, then yes. The system there works like a bank and it would allow users to transfer coins instantly. If he's talking about Bitcoin, the point could be valid.

Bitcoin transactions take seconds to propagate throughout the network and double spend is hard if the user pays a reasonable fee and the inputs are all confirmed unless a miner decides to accept another double spending transaction and mines a block.

[Denker]

Maybe by "confirm" he means "confirm that the transaction has reached several nodes on the Bitcoin network, and thus is in the pool of transactions to be included in a future block."

Yes that's it as long we are talking about a transaction on the blockchain.Propagation time is really fast. However the settlement of a transaction takes up to one hour, ie 6 confirmations at least.

[S4VV4S]

If he is talking about coinbase, then yes. The system there works like a bank and it would allow users to transfer coins instantly.

^^^That.
He is obviously trying to promote coinbase, therefor explaining how things work through their service.

[BlackMachine]

You'll notice sites like bitpay will automatically mark something as paid as long as the payment contains the right fee and doesn't appear to be malicious.

from what i noticed, even if bitpay marks it as paid, the payment would only be processed by the merchant if it has a specific amount of confirmations, can be adjusted by their control panel.

[Q7]

I think it's very clear that he's referring to coinbase service and not bitcoin as a whole. A person at his position and knowledge would rarely make that kind of mistake.

[LiteCoinGuy]

he misspoke, don't get your panties in a wad.

next time OP can make that talk in front of 100 VCs