BlockChain slowing transaction times?

[The Ferox]

Just a quick question.

Since about November of this past year, as every month goes by, i notice that transactions are taking longer and longer to confirm. I'm sure that some will argue that, but i have a few wallets on a few different machines all on different networks and i keep track of these kind of things. In january of this year, it was pretty common to get 6 confirms in under 10 minutes of it hitting the blockchain. In february almost 12 minutes. Now today, well this month, i have been waiting upwards of 30 minutes just to get 1 confirm on a ton of transactions. Dosnt matter the volume, the address, the wallet, it is getting to be more the normal than the exception.

Does anyone have any idea why its slowing down over time? Is the blockchain getting slower as it gets bigger? will this start to cause problems for retail use in the future? i know i am not the only one to have noticed this.

[BurtW]

It should be taking, on average, 60 minutes to get 6 confirmations by design.  If it takes less than 60 minutes you are lucky.  If it takes more than 60 minutes you are unlucky.

6 confirmations in 10 minutes is very lucky.

[DannyHamilton]

Perhaps you are basing your memory of past events on a VERY small sample set, so that it seems like it was faster because you got very lucky on one or two transactions.

If you are basing your memory on a significant number of transactions, then you are most likely mistaken in your memory.

[azeteki]

Just a quick question.

Since about November of this past year, as every month goes by, i notice that transactions are taking longer and longer to confirm. I'm sure that some will argue that, but i have a few wallets on a few different machines all on different networks and i keep track of these kind of things. In january of this year, it was pretty common to get 6 confirms in under 10 minutes of it hitting the blockchain. In february almost 12 minutes. Now today, well this month, i have been waiting upwards of 30 minutes just to get 1 confirm on a ton of transactions. Dosnt matter the volume, the address, the wallet, it is getting to be more the normal than the exception.

Does anyone have any idea why its slowing down over time? Is the blockchain getting slower as it gets bigger? will this start to cause problems for retail use in the future? i know i am not the only one to have noticed this.

Six blocks within ten to twelve minutes is not at all common.

In both January and February the average block interval was just over 8 minutes.
The rate has been fairly static.


 
I can't comment on time until first confirmation. That may be a factor.