Why is bitcoin becoming so god damn slow?

[Xester]

I really miss those old days when a confirmation took just 10 minutes and you didn't need to think about fees.

In the old days bitcoin was still very low in value and the mining difficulty was very low and thus a very fast transaction was the trend. But those fast transactions were full of double spend transactions and was very problematic. Thus confirmation were placed so that double spending will be resolved. But later on confirmation was very slow due to the huge traffic in the blockchain network as well as the increased difficulty in mining. Thus the initiative to place a higher fee was now the trend to get a high priority and fast confirmation.

[Sadlife]

It seems that you have send your payments in the wrong time were the bitcoin network is getting spammed by transactions especially mempool the blocks even reach 0.98 mb nearing it's 1 mb cap.
If segwit gets activated you can send and receive faster without delay and there will be less fees.
Back in the days when bitcoin has no competition the transaction fees were still low and the difficulty in mining was not that hard to find blocks and the network was not getting spammed by traffic daily those were great days.

[Enjorlas]

Hilarious and predictable. A new bitcoin user comes to the community and expresses dissatisfaction. Then the community calls him stupid.

You know, you guys wonder why Bitcoin is falling in dominance and this is it right here. You guys aren't ready for mainstream adoption. Now sit back and let better crypto currencies come to the front.

[n0ne]

Hilarious and predictable. A new bitcoin user comes to the community and expresses dissatisfaction. Then the community calls him stupid.

You know, you guys wonder why Bitcoin is falling in dominance and this is it right here. You guys aren't ready for mainstream adoption. Now sit back and let better crypto currencies come to the front.

As the dominance level as well the price has started to decline we can't say that bitcoin is damn slow and some other digital currency will take the lead making path for mainstream adoption. Lot cryptocurrency were giving hard competence, but those coins gain attention from users for a short during the time of price pumping.

[taxmanmt5]

I really miss those old days when a confirmation took just 10 minutes and you didn't need to think about fees.

In the old days bitcoin was still very low in value and the mining difficulty was very low and thus a very fast transaction was the trend. But those fast transactions were full of double spend transactions and was very problematic. Thus confirmation were placed so that double spending will be resolved. But later on confirmation was very slow due to the huge traffic in the blockchain network as well as the increased difficulty in mining. Thus the initiative to place a higher fee was now the trend to get a high priority and fast confirmation.

The bitcoin blockchain has become really slow as the usage of bitcoins has increased. Even when you send a big transaction fee , the tx takes hours to confirm. I think increasing more and more transaction fee is not a real solution to this problem as if it goes on increasing like this we can have 5$ per tx fee or even more, very soon.

[talkbitcoin]

Hilarious and predictable. A new bitcoin user comes to the community and expresses dissatisfaction. Then the community calls him stupid.

You know, you guys wonder why Bitcoin is falling in dominance and this is it right here. You guys aren't ready for mainstream adoption. Now sit back and let better crypto currencies come to the front.

nobody is preventing your favorite altcoin to come to the front, by all means come on.
we all love cryptocurrency and it just happens that we all find bitcoin to be the best thing. but if there is an altcoin that is really better than bitcoin then surely that will be used and will become bigger than bitcoin.

but the problem is, all the altcoins that you think are "better" have a lot of problems that you either don't see yet or are closing your eyes on.

the problem is that bitcoin is under a heavy spam attack, then there is a lot of adoption and the price rise always increases the number of transactions. so the fees go up. newbies pay less and get their transactions stuck.
here is where altcoins come in. their network is empty since noone is using them to transfer money. many of them also have faster block generation. also to make newbies think they are better they have set the fees lower (also since they are mostly different).
now you look at this and think to yourself, altcoins are better.

but when you go in, see the centralization, see the pre-mines the ICO scams, all the bugs in the code, all the exploits that are right there, all the other problems that they have, so many of the big altcoins don't even have a proper wallet, all the security issues, and a lot more, and also when the manipulators dumped on you and price crashed you will crawl back to bitcoin just like each year.

but by all means, introduce a better cryptocurrency than bitcoin and we will all switch and start using it.

[rajasumi3]

Well you are a newbie and i guess that you have to regulate the transaction fees through which the transactions fees may  be faster ,well not be selfish and give a fair amount of transaction fees for the bitcoins and everything will be fine.

[Kotone]

As you can see even you paid the highest fee recommended it will depends on the next block to confirmed it. Also the traffic of users who sending too much transaction in a day. Try to pay the highest fee mine it took 2 days before it confirmed and received it into my wallet.

[Enjorlas]

Hilarious and predictable. A new bitcoin user comes to the community and expresses dissatisfaction. Then the community calls him stupid.

You know, you guys wonder why Bitcoin is falling in dominance and this is it right here. You guys aren't ready for mainstream adoption. Now sit back and let better crypto currencies come to the front.

nobody is preventing your favorite altcoin to come to the front, by all means come on.
we all love cryptocurrency and it just happens that we all find bitcoin to be the best thing. but if there is an altcoin that is really better than bitcoin then surely that will be used and will become bigger than bitcoin.

but the problem is, all the altcoins that you think are "better" have a lot of problems that you either don't see yet or are closing your eyes on.

the problem is that bitcoin is under a heavy spam attack, then there is a lot of adoption and the price rise always increases the number of transactions. so the fees go up. newbies pay less and get their transactions stuck.
here is where altcoins come in. their network is empty since noone is using them to transfer money. many of them also have faster block generation. also to make newbies think they are better they have set the fees lower (also since they are mostly different).
now you look at this and think to yourself, altcoins are better.

but when you go in, see the centralization, see the pre-mines the ICO scams, all the bugs in the code, all the exploits that are right there, all the other problems that they have, so many of the big altcoins don't even have a proper wallet, all the security issues, and a lot more, and also when the manipulators dumped on you and price crashed you will crawl back to bitcoin just like each year.

but by all means, introduce a better cryptocurrency than bitcoin and we will all switch and start using it.

I, the original poster, and many others are turned off from Bitcoin in favor of other currencies because of the shit show that it has become. It's not that we want Bitcoin to suck, it's just that Bitcoin objectively sucks. Don't take it personal.

[QuestionAuthority]

Hello,

I was under the impression that this new currency was fast, my first payment took 3 days to confirm, was told it was something about the fees, i now have increased my fees and i've waited 2 hours, nothing..
can someone tell me why this payment wont just confirm already?
https://blockchain.info/tx-index/93d43009a1efd4a9fdc4b63e8126599234ac2fb433097095c496445040e6240e

this bitcoin thing is absolutely horrible, the fee is constantly increasing and the delay seems insane, can't be used with trust when payments are days delayed everytime you don't want to spend 10% of the amount you send in fees.

You're just using it for the wrong purpose.  If you want to send $20,000 halfway around the world use bitcoin.  If you want to pay your buddy back the five dollars you borrowed last week use cash.

[Holliday]

You guys aren't ready for mainstream adoption. Now sit back and let better crypto currencies come to the front.

LOL.

Mainstream adoption of any cryptocurrency simply isn't going to happen any time soon.

Have you ever talked to a "regular" person about computers? They are fucking clueless. You expect them to be custodians of money that requires at least a general grasp of computer security? Pfft...

The only way the mainstream is going to use cryptocurrency any time soon is through a third party custodian, and just like that the entire purpose is lost.

Let's not even get into the fact that the average debt slave can't even write a $500 check in an emergency. You seriously think they have money to blow on disruptive technology?

Oh, they are also clueless about money, in general, as well. They don't have the slightest inkling about how the fiat garbage they use every day works. Gold bugs and silver stackers are probably the best targets for adoption and most of them are downright hostile to the idea of cryptocurrency.

Mainstream adoption... LMAO. Keep dreamin'!

[Holliday]

If we want bitcoin to be widely adopted it should be simple enough that anyone can use it efficiently.

If you want the freedom that Bitcoin provides, you need to take the responsibility to learn to use it properly. There are no shortcuts.

[Enjorlas]

If we want bitcoin to be widely adopted it should be simple enough that anyone can use it efficiently.

If you want the freedom that Bitcoin provides, you need to take the responsibility to learn to use it properly. There are no shortcuts.

Then accept Bitcoin getting surpassed by better coins. Simple. Adapt or die.

[Enjorlas]

Hello,

I was under the impression that this new currency was fast, my first payment took 3 days to confirm, was told it was something about the fees, i now have increased my fees and i've waited 2 hours, nothing..
can someone tell me why this payment wont just confirm already?
https://blockchain.info/tx-index/93d43009a1efd4a9fdc4b63e8126599234ac2fb433097095c496445040e6240e

this bitcoin thing is absolutely horrible, the fee is constantly increasing and the delay seems insane, can't be used with trust when payments are days delayed everytime you don't want to spend 10% of the amount you send in fees.

You're just using it for the wrong purpose.  If you want to send $20,000 halfway around the world use bitcoin.  If you want to pay your buddy back the five dollars you borrowed last week use cash.

Or use a better crypto coin for both.

[CryptoSocial]

You don't know how to use Bitcoin obviously. All my transactions confirm in the next block.

Bitcoin isn't suited for micro-transactions. If you are using Bitcoin to send a dollar, you are going to have a bad time.

My 3 BTC transfer took 2 days to confirm and was sent through a reputed wallet, which always deduct higher than the ongoing transaction fee, I don't think 3 BTC would qualify as a micro-transaction.

I firmly believe that there is some sort of mess going on with the block chain right now.

Don't know if it could be a side effect of WannaCry.....

[Enjorlas]

Don't know if it could be a side effect of WannaCry.....

No, it's a side effect of being a shit crypto coin.

[SvenBomvolen]

I really miss those old days when a confirmation took just 10 minutes and you didn't need to think about fees.

Well, days are not so old as I remember the situation is like that only for the last month and half. People here are saying about the value of transactions, but in my case I had to wait the same long with transferring 1 BTC and 0,05 BTC. While I was waiting the price for bitcoin changed and I had some costs. This is just not fair.

[Pursuer]

You don't know how to use Bitcoin obviously. All my transactions confirm in the next block.

Bitcoin isn't suited for micro-transactions. If you are using Bitcoin to send a dollar, you are going to have a bad time.

My 3 BTC transfer took 2 days to confirm and was sent through a reputed wallet, which always deduct higher than the ongoing transaction fee, I don't think 3 BTC would qualify as a micro-transaction.

I firmly believe that there is some sort of mess going on with the block chain right now.

Don't know if it could be a side effect of WannaCry.....

what was the "reputed wallet" was it by any chance blockchain.info?! that wallet is a piece of shit when it comes to fee suggestion. and if your transaction took 2 days it either had a very low fee of <90 satoshi per byte or it was spending some unconfirmed output.

with that said I strongly disagree with what holiday and QuestionAuthority are trying to convince others about. bitcoin is not some millionaires' money to just move around their $20,000 around the world. it is supposed to function for all purposes. maybe not buying coffee day by day or paying your friend $5 but for small transactions too like buying a 5-10 dollar VPN .

Then accept Bitcoin getting surpassed by better coins. Simple. Adapt or die.

words are empty. show some action, show us your "better coin"'s adoption. show us the merchants that are accepting your "better coin". show us the countries that are considering your "better coin" as a legal way of payment.
people like you repeating the same script about altcoins only proves your desperation about bags that you are holding and want more profit on them.

[chickenado]

Bitcoin transaction is becoming so slow because there are many transaction. I think that's like a traffic in our highways if there are many bus, cars and other vehicles the traffic is so slow moving. But if you know another route your transaction become faster.

[bearex]

Agreed with OP. This is absolutely disgusting. The fees are higher than a bank transfer !!! And if you pay like $20 with a 0.20$ cent fee, like i did, good luck getting that confirmed in one day. Ridiculous. So if you want to pay for something or pay someone an something sub $100 you are basically having a MAD fee of at least 0.80$, which is like twice the fee of a wire transfer, or let's not forget credit card payment, on which you don't deal with any fee.