Blocks are still taking way too long.

[jonald_fyookball]

this is a serious problem

Are you sure?  How is it a serious problem? 

[Klestin]

But for a consumer getting 2-5% cash back or rewards by using a credit card it's going to be hard for even the slickest of innovations to beat that.

Where do you think that money comes from? The goodness of the bank's hearts?  Discounts for paying in Bitcoin are already happening. Newegg's huge PS4 discount for instance.

[Nagle]

It would be useful to have a system where blocks were found more often but the reward was smaller. Say, one block every 30 seconds. The original worry was that miners wouldn't find out about the new blocks fast enough, and they'd waste effort building on top of orphaned blocks. But now that all useful mining is centralized, the big guys have enough connectivity to pass around their new blocks fast. As a miner, you want your new block to reach other big miners as fast as possible, and you want to hear about new blocks as fast as possible. So miners will cooperate in passing new blocks around fast, and all the big farms will send directly to each other.

[Este Nuno]

It would be useful to have a system where blocks were found more often but the reward was smaller. Say, one block every 30 seconds. The original worry was that miners wouldn't find out about the new blocks fast enough, and they'd waste effort building on top of orphaned blocks. But now that all useful mining is centralized, the big guys have enough connectivity to pass around their new blocks fast. As a miner, you want your new block to reach other big miners as fast as possible, and you want to hear about new blocks as fast as possible. So miners will cooperate in passing new blocks around fast, and all the big farms will send directly to each other.

Yes, shorter block times are clearly superior but too many people refuse to acknowledge that fact it the Bitcoin world. Probably because it would involve acknowledging that an alt implemented the protocol better.

[OrientA]

When we have a offchain payment system for small amounts, block times wouldn't matter.

This.

Soon enough confirmation times will be irrelevant for low cost day-to-day transactions.

It is applicable if we use a centralized on line wallet.

[Jamie_Boulder]

Unfortunately I've had this issue as well (10mins though not 30 lol)

10 minutes is an awfully long time to sit around and wait for your payment to be approved when you could simply swipe your credit card or hand over cash, for this reason I never use BTC in the real world.

[bf4btc]

It would be useful to have a system where blocks were found more often but the reward was smaller. Say, one block every 30 seconds. The original worry was that miners wouldn't find out about the new blocks fast enough, and they'd waste effort building on top of orphaned blocks. But now that all useful mining is centralized, the big guys have enough connectivity to pass around their new blocks fast. As a miner, you want your new block to reach other big miners as fast as possible, and you want to hear about new blocks as fast as possible. So miners will cooperate in passing new blocks around fast, and all the big farms will send directly to each other.

Yes, shorter block times are clearly superior but too many people refuse to acknowledge that fact it the Bitcoin world. Probably because it would involve acknowledging that an alt implemented the protocol better.

If we had shorter block times then we would see more orphaned blocks and more orphaned chains. If we had a 30 second block time then 20 confirmations would be less secure then one confirmation as it is now. 20 confirmations would be less secure then a 0/unconfirmed TX as it is now.

The higher level of orphans would also cause the miners to have less earnings potential which means they would want to spend less resources mining which means the network would be less secure.

[bithound]

this is a serious problem

Are you sure?  How is it a serious problem?  

Because it allows for individuals who are trying to get paid for a signature campaign to post about how much of a problem it is without really adding anything to the conversation!

Yeah people like me will do that..

[novacn]

I think it's because of the mining power decrease  Hopefully confirm time will be shorter soon when price rises.

[ranochigo]

I think it's because of the mining power decrease  Hopefully confirm time will be shorter soon when price rises.

I don't think the hashrate is even decreasing, it seems to be increasing fast and it wouldn't make alot of difference in the confirmation time. The main factor is variance and at time, it takes more time than usual. There are ways to avoid the double spending attack. Even though it may not be recommended, offchain transaction can be made for instant and safe transaction. If you wait a few seconds and take some safety measures, you may be safe enough to accept smaller payments.

[cbeast]

Can somebody please post a transaction to demonstrate this long verification time? I'm just not seeing it.

[jonald_fyookball]

bitcoin is not for your daily latte.  if its a large enough transaction that you need to wait for it to confirm, then the time is not significant.

sure it is.  daily latte = 0 confirmation transaction

[Dabs]

Can somebody please post a transaction to demonstrate this long verification time? I'm just not seeing it.

Yeah, this. I've had a free (no fee) transaction take several hours, but that's my fault for not including a fee.

[Minecache]

It is a serious concern and one I hope the great bitcoin minds can resolve.

[Este Nuno]

Can somebody please post a transaction to demonstrate this long verification time? I'm just not seeing it.

Unless you're talking about unconfirmed transaction propegation I find it hard to beleive that you've never been the victim of a 30 minute plus wait time for blocks. Especially considering 30 minute blocks are not even that rare at all, and 1 hour+ blocks have been observed often enough.

Just look at https://blockchain.info/ once in a while and you'll constantly see long block times. Just now I clicked in and we see this:

325004   2 minutes   990   13,547.15 BTC   GHash.IO   340.81
325003   27 minutes   105   1,036.64 BTC   Unknown with 1AcAj9p Address   58.93
325002   29 minutes   403   2,056.85 BTC   KnCMiner   239.75
325001   36 minutes   1127   5,914.54 BTC   Discus Fish   593.95
325000   1 hour 2 minutes   620   4,158.71 BTC   Eligius   290.01
324999   1 hour 17 minutes

I bolded long block gaps. First one is 25 minutes and the second one is 26 minutes. Everyone I know who's used Bitcoin knows about the long block times, so I don't understand where you're coming from unless you're talking about unconfirmed tx.

Obviously the block time target is 10 minutes. But variance dictates that we often see block times much shorter and much longer than that. With the long ones being the issue of course.

[1Referee]

Over 30 minutes for a single confirmation does not (and will not ever) work in the real world.
(Almost) Every time I start to believe that BTC is "going mainstream", I have a delay waiting for a 30+ minute block....  

Namecheap doesn't require a single confirmation when you make a Bitcoin deposit.

It will post instantly and show up in your balance. They use BitPay as payment processor.

If Namecheap can do this other businesses can do it as well. Only not sure if they also accept large deposits without confirmations to post instantly.

[mnl92]

If you are not patient, you can go to other altcoins having quick confirmation, such as NXt, doge etc.

I have waited over 30 minutes for a NXt block, so it's not always faster than bitcoin. Most of the time it's faster but not always.

[Klestin]

If we had shorter block times then we would see more orphaned blocks and more orphaned chains. If we had a 30 second block time then 20 confirmations would be less secure then one confirmation as it is now. 20 confirmations would be less secure then a 0/unconfirmed TX as it is now.

[odolvlobo]

Unfortunately I've had this issue as well (10mins though not 30 lol)

10 minutes is an awfully long time to sit around and wait for your payment to be approved when you could simply swipe your credit card or hand over cash, for this reason I never use BTC in the real world.

A credit card transaction takes months to be confirmed. Accepting a bitcoin transaction with 0 confirmations is safer than accepting a credit card transaction.

[jonald_fyookball]

Unfortunately I've had this issue as well (10mins though not 30 lol)

10 minutes is an awfully long time to sit around and wait for your payment to be approved when you could simply swipe your credit card or hand over cash, for this reason I never use BTC in the real world.

A credit card transaction takes months to be confirmed. Accepting a bitcoin transaction with 0 confirmations is safer than accepting a credit card transaction.

In your personal experience, which merchants are insisting on confirmation ?