Why Does Bitcoin Transfers Takes so Long Time?

[SAFEVoucher]

Hi, perhaps there is anybody who could explain why it is so. Why does bitcoin transfer take so long time to arrive to send payment to receive payment, there are 6 confirmation required?

All other digital moneys are instant, why bitcoin transfer is not instant?

Thanks in advance.

[the_austria]

Waiting for 6 confirmations is for your own safety. You should wait this time to make sure the transaction has proofed by the network.

[Akka]

You can spend you coins after the first confirmation, waiting for 6 conformations is only a safety guideline. Also there are services that credit your transaction immediately without any wait time.

If you have enabled incoming connections you can see any transaction within seconds.

Have you ever credited a deposit check to you bank account? The amount of money shows up on you account within 1 day, but the bank only lets you spend the money after about a week after the creditability of it is confirmed.

Its basically the same, only a 1000 Times faster.

[SAFEVoucher]

Sure I have deposited a check, there is 2 weeks time usually while the check clears.

Actually bitcoin is a bit different, for example, I have tested with my own system, if you make a bitcoin payment and the service you are paying accepts your payment with the first confirmation, here is a mall problem, if you close your bitcoin wallet after your payment, then the service wont get the payment. This is tested by me, therefore we made in our web store www.safevouchers.com with 6 conformations, it takes normally about and hour to get the money.

[Akka]

Actually bitcoin is a bit different, for example, I have tested with my own system, if you make a bitcoin payment and the service you are paying accepts your payment with the first confirmation, here is a mall problem, if you close your bitcoin wallet after your payment, then the service wont get the payment. This is tested by me, therefore we made in our web store www.safevouchers.com with 6 conformations, it takes normally about and hour to get the money.

This is not true, as soon as you transaction has been revived by other clients, your client has no influence at this specific transaction anymore. As soon as it has one confirmation, which means it has been included in a block, all other confirmations are just blocks build upon that block. It really doesn't matter if you close your client directly after sending (especially not after one confirmation).

Waiting for 6 confirmations is just for safety.

See:

[DannyHamilton]

. . . if . . . the service you are paying accepts your payment with the first confirmation, there is a small problem, if you close your bitcoin wallet after your payment, then the service wont get the payment. This is tested by me . . .

No. It isn't tested by you, or if it is, then you didn't do a very good job of testing.  If the service accepts your payment after one confirmation, and then you close your wallet, the service will continue to get confirmations.  Your wallet does not need to be running to get confirmations.

As a matter of fact, if the service accepts your payment after ZERO CONFIRMATIONS and then you close your wallet, the service will still get the exact same confirmations as it would get if you left your wallet running.

The only issue you could run into with closing your wallet would be if the service believes you when you say that you sent a transaction even though they don't see the unconfirmed transaction on the network yet.  In that case, it is possible that your wallet is not connected to the network, and hasn't successfully sent the unconfirmed transaction to any peers yet.  IF you then close your wallet, then the transaction won't get sent into the network while your wallet isn't running.

[SAFEVoucher]

Thanks a lot for the information.

[Gabi]

It takes like a second for a transaction to arrive. How the hell is a second "so long time"?

6 confirmations? they are not required lol

[dancupid]

paypal require a 90 day confirmation period to be 100% sure the transaction won't be reversed.
Bitcoin requires about 1 hour to be 100% sure and 1 second to be 99.9% sure.

edit - all other digital transfers can be reversed months later - by credit card companies or banks.
It may seem you have the money, but they can reverse the transaction months later and they can close your account permanently.

[Taxidermista]

It takes like a second for a transaction to arrive. How the hell is a second "so long time"?

6 confirmations? they are not required lol

Yeah, sure, 40 F*CKING MINUTES FOR THE TRANSACTION TO SHOW UP from my wallet to exchange (only showing up, I'm not talking about confirmations). And this is not the first, second nor third time I had to endure this s**t. It's a real pleasure to send money like that.

[STBradley]

Transfers take so long because the bitcoin has to be verified (i.e., calculated)...

[redwine77]

Forty minutes really isn't that bad, you just have to relax and understand this is the nature of btc. There were a number of times it took me an hour or 2. Like the others said, it is for safety reasons, but i hear that it can be safe at shorter times like some other cryptos(don't quote me on this, i have heard people argue against this too). The speed issue is one thing that worries me about some people entering the btc market and in regards to another coin/coins taking over.

[DannyHamilton]

It takes like a second for a transaction to arrive. How the hell is a second "so long time"?

6 confirmations? they are not required lol

Yeah, sure, 40 F*CKING MINUTES FOR THE TRANSACTION TO SHOW UP from my wallet to exchange (only showing up, I'm not talking about confirmations). And this is not the first, second nor third time I had to endure this s**t.

Highly unlikely unless you sent a low priority transaction and didn't include a transaction fee.

What wallet are you using?  This sounds like a problem with your wallet, not with the bitcoin network.

Under normal circumstances it shouldn't take more than a few seconds for a transaction to show up everywhere on the network.

[DannyHamilton]

The speed issue is one thing that worries me about some people entering the btc market and in regards to another coin/coins taking over.

Under normal circumstances it shouldn't take more than a few seconds for a transaction to be seen by the whole network.  It will take longer to receive confirmations on that transaction, but there are many ways to reduce fraud and theft when dealing with instant transaction.

[cuongnc]

Just waitting 

[crazyjack]

Transactions/confirmation time should be instant...that is the future and dont fool your self...that is something bitcoin should improve...if not well...we all know what comes next....a replacement..for something better..