What's going on with BTC transaction times??

[StinkyLover]

I've moved a few BTC over the last few days and transactions have been lightning fast. Confirms almost immediately. This is the fastest that BTC has ever been for me.

What's going on??

I've been hearing horror stories about transaction times for months. Have I just been lucky??

[bathrobehero]

There's a funny correlation between BU pretty much failing and the number of unconfirmed transactions going down right after. It's almost as if the network was spammed deliberately to promote BU...

[e-coinomist]

There's a funny correlation between BU pretty much failing and the number of unconfirmed transactions going down right after. It's almost as if the network was spammed deliberately to promote BU...

you could try to spin it that way.
but https://bitcoinfees.21.co/ tells everybody who is curious about that level of supplied fees - has been rising on average. once supplying 100 Satoshis has been a completely sufficient choice, to get through.
now that drags you below 1380 minutes delay, up to infinity.

[TalesfromtheCrib]

getting slower?   

[bathrobehero]

There's a funny correlation between BU pretty much failing and the number of unconfirmed transactions going down right after. It's almost as if the network was spammed deliberately to promote BU...

you could try to spin it that way.
but https://bitcoinfees.21.co/ tells everybody who is curious about that level of supplied fees - has been rising on average. once supplying 100 Satoshis has been a completely sufficient choice, to get through.
now that drags you below 1380 minutes delay, up to infinity.

I only track the number of unconfirmed transactions (https://blockchain.info/q/unconfirmedcount) for a long time, several times a day and it definitely went down. Now it's at 19k and it was around up to 80k for a while and then a rapid drop.

Graph: https://blockchain.info/charts/mempool-count?timespan=30days

[Viper1]

The most telling chart is the one year one. Simply no real issue until Oct 2016.

[Queen B]

Only noticed it recently

[leexhin]

I think we should just be glad that the transactions are being fast right now,
Hope that it would stay that way even if the number of people who are using btc is now enormous.

[BrannigansLaw]

I agree, just had a transaction with a recommended $5 fee due to it being my dust collecting address. So yeah pretty big, so I altered it to 4000 satoshi and it went through pretty much straight away. I was expecting it to get stuck for a week and refunded, so was pleasantly surprised.

[e-coinomist]

I agree, just had a transaction with a recommended $5 fee due to it being my dust collecting address. So yeah pretty big, so I altered it to 4000 satoshi and it went through pretty much straight away. I was expecting it to get stuck for a week and refunded, so was pleasantly surprised.

What we are calling "dust" today could be "dollar cents" tomorrow. So there must be a way to send for near-to-zero-fees and getting through eventually. Trading time vs. costs so these sorts of transactions would have to "pay in time".

I only track the number of unconfirmed transactions (https://blockchain.info/q/unconfirmedcount) for a long time, several times a day and it definitely went down. Now it's at 19k and it was around up to 80k for a while and then a rapid drop.

Graph: https://blockchain.info/charts/mempool-count?timespan=30days

That is a nifty chart. I can compare with my visual impression of logged in people at Poloniex, either from trollbox activity or their own numbers stated, and acknowledge there ARE more people using crypto. Definitely.
But that number ranks up slow and steady almost linear to time. Means mempool fill levels got gamed, and a distinct level of required fees would squench that afford.

[StinkyLover]

There's a funny correlation between BU pretty much failing and the number of unconfirmed transactions going down right after. It's almost as if the network was spammed deliberately to promote BU...

you could try to spin it that way.
but https://bitcoinfees.21.co/ tells everybody who is curious about that level of supplied fees - has been rising on average. once supplying 100 Satoshis has been a completely sufficient choice, to get through.
now that drags you below 1380 minutes delay, up to infinity.

I only track the number of unconfirmed transactions (https://blockchain.info/q/unconfirmedcount) for a long time, several times a day and it definitely went down. Now it's at 19k and it was around up to 80k for a while and then a rapid drop.

Graph: https://blockchain.info/charts/mempool-count?timespan=30days

Yes, good chart. Looks like I was sending BTC during a dip in transactions.

[maku]

I've been hearing horror stories about transaction times for months. Have I just been lucky??

These horror stories are usually told by newbies, or users completely unaware of how bitcoin transaction works.
They use old version of wallet or manually decrease fee to the lowest possible amount and as result we have massive number of underpaid transactions.
I am not saying that current high fees are OK, they certainly aren't but with proper fee your transaction will be confirmed very fast.

[mining1]

Proper fee like 5-6$ ? Most transactions probably involve less than 100$ worth of btc, so that's insane.

[JeffBrad12]

I've moved a few BTC over the last few days and transactions have been lightning fast. Confirms almost immediately. This is the fastest that BTC has ever been for me.

What's going on??

You sent at the right time, Due to the little amount of unconfirmed transaction and combined with reliable fees will make your transaction gets confirmed just in 10 minutes.

I've been hearing horror stories about transaction times for months. Have I just been lucky??

Yes, you have. But it can't be called 100% luck, It depends on the network condition.
If you have tried to make a transaction at the traffic of bitcoin network is quiet.

That's normal if your transaction gets delivered so fast.

[bathrobehero]

I've been hearing horror stories about transaction times for months. Have I just been lucky??

I've been using Bitcoin for over 4 years, dozens of times a week and I have never had a transaction taking longer than a day. Not even from greedy/terribly setup exchanges with 0 fees. Anecdotal evidence? Sure, but so are the horror stories.

Checking back at the last month my trsansaction fees were 180 satoshis per byte on average and I never had any issues. I don't think I had any transaction taking over 2-3 hours to get confirmed.

But then again I don't use dozens of accounts to send funds from - which all Bitcoin users should understand, along with the fact the Bitcoin is not intended for dust transactions for a long while now (which is completely fine).

[pooya87]

Proper fee like 5-6$ ? Most transactions probably involve less than 100$ worth of btc, so that's insane.

yeah if you have no idea what bitcoin is and what you are doing, you pay 5-6% fee. otherwise for the rest of us the fees are still $0.4 worst case scenario at the peak of the spam attack. and at normal times it is still less than $0.1

[Sadlife]

Looks like you have send you BTC at the right time when there were just few unconfirmed transaction and bitcoin network wasn't that busy.
Im guessing those days we're weekends of holidays or i guess those horror stories were just meant to scare as of, basically a hoax.

[amacar2]

I think you have paid good fee (more than the recommended one) so that your transaction get confirmation within next block. Another reason for this could be less number of unconfirmed transactions stucked at mempool during time of your transaction.

[SONG GEET]

There's a funny correlation between BU pretty much failing and the number of unconfirmed transactions going down right after. It's almost as if the network was spammed deliberately to promote BU...

I also believe this, BU is the one who is behind all those attack on bitcoin network. However they don't have any good dev behind to fix a small bug in their software. They are losing support these days so they have also stopped flooding network with spam transactions.

[hajimasan]

Looks like you have send you BTC at the right time when there were just few unconfirmed transaction and bitcoin network wasn't that busy.
Im guessing those days we're weekends of holidays or i guess those horror stories were just meant to scare as of, basically a hoax.

Yeah , these are also factor for the speed confirmation that result for the confirmation of your transaction but probably I think you don't know the rules of the fee system .
Because all this Depends upon the fee you can see at bitcoinfees.21.co that is suitable for single transaction .
The amount of the fee depends upon the input and output of the numbers of the transaction with that amount of bitcoin that you want transfer .
Usually if you paid fee of 150sat/byte then your confirmation will goes smoothly with 10-20 minutes .