Blocks are still taking way too long.

[sakira]

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.... 

still fortunately you only 30 minutes, I was almost 1 hour more because my connection is only 20KBps. moreover offline wallet so many blocks

[ranochigo]

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.... 

still fortunately you only 30 minutes, I was almost 1 hour more because my connection is only 20KBps. moreover offline wallet so many blocks

I don't think confirmation relies on connection speed. Transaction is broadcasted to the network almost instantaneously regardless of connection speed, of cause, slower connection speed may have delays but it isn't much. I think you are talking about syncing of blocks. It is also dependent on connection speed of your peers.

[the joint]

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.... 

still fortunately you only 30 minutes, I was almost 1 hour more because my connection is only 20KBps. moreover offline wallet so many blocks

That isn't how confirmations work.  Confirmations happen through mining (e.g. 1 'solved block' = 1 confirmation).  Additionally, 10 minutes, 30 minutes, or even an hour is just fine for most online transactions and a majority, if not most, non-micropayments (e.g. paychecks).

[Dabs]

With BTC, I can give you a few models which remove the need for checkout lines, checkout counters, and even cashiers, and only require a couple security personnel at the doors

I'm listening. (or reading.) Go ahead, tell us about it.

[Sheldor333]

I do think that could be improved if it was about 10 seconds each time that would help a lot in marketing it but then I think most people know that.

[Este Nuno]

I do think that could be improved if it was about 10 seconds each time that would help a lot in marketing it but then I think most people know that.

Ethereum is going to attempt 12 second confirmations from what I understand. https://blog.ethereum.org/2014/07/11/toward-a-12-second-block-time/

Will Bitcoin be able to adapt that technology with our current system or is this something that requires a full rewrite from the ground up?

[Dabs]

There's an alt called FastCoin. They do 12 second blocks. I haven't checked if that was the case though, just what I've read about them.

[santaClause]

There's an alt called FastCoin. They do 12 second blocks. I haven't checked if that was the case though, just what I've read about them.

A very good example of why it is not good to have short confirmation times is on the ghash multipool. They have live updates as to how many confirmations each found block of each altcoin has. They often have very long chains of coins going from orphaned to confirmed and back again. The chains are often 10 or more blocks long

[Este Nuno]

There's an alt called FastCoin. They do 12 second blocks. I haven't checked if that was the case though, just what I've read about them.

A very good example of why it is not good to have short confirmation times is on the ghash multipool. They have live updates as to how many confirmations each found block of each altcoin has. They often have very long chains of coins going from orphaned to confirmed and back again. The chains are often 10 or more blocks long

Yeah, there's a sweet spot and 12 seconds with the current codebase is almost certainly much to fast. I'd guess 2 minutes is the sweet spot, but I'd like to see some data on that too. There's a limit of how many orphans should be acceptable and how much hash gets wasted in the name of user experience for sure. I do think that number is blow 10 minutes though.

[santaClause]

There's an alt called FastCoin. They do 12 second blocks. I haven't checked if that was the case though, just what I've read about them.

A very good example of why it is not good to have short confirmation times is on the ghash multipool. They have live updates as to how many confirmations each found block of each altcoin has. They often have very long chains of coins going from orphaned to confirmed and back again. The chains are often 10 or more blocks long

Yeah, there's a sweet spot and 12 seconds with the current codebase is almost certainly much to fast. I'd guess 2 minutes is the sweet spot, but I'd like to see some data on that too. There's a limit of how many orphans should be acceptable and how much hash gets wasted in the name of user experience for sure. I do think that number is blow 10 minutes though.

Two minutes is still too short. On average one in 120 blocks will, at minimum get orphaned, however it will be likely be much greater. I am not sure what the block time on he alts with the very long orphan chains however I am pretty sure it is more then one minute and that the orphan chains often last 30 minutes plus.

[Este Nuno]

Two minutes is still too short. On average one in 120 blocks will, at minimum get orphaned, however it will be likely be much greater.

You don't think that it's an acceptable trade off to increase usability of the currency though?

[sushibi]

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.... 

BS, its called variance. I have always got confirmed within 10min, some even in secs ..... What does that tell you?

Look at the avg block time, you've been this ignorant b4. Sell your coins and fck off?

lol you made my day

[BittBurger]

solution:
if your paying for a coffee or a mars bar, dont wait. if your buying a house wait 30 minutes

You're killing me with this fucking mess of a sentence.

[Window2Wall]

Two minutes is still too short. On average one in 120 blocks will, at minimum get orphaned, however it will be likely be much greater.

You don't think that it's an acceptable trade off to increase usability of the currency though?

The block time for Bitcoin is 10 minutes. The time it takes to know with a good amount of certainty that a TX will confirm is roughly 10 seconds. This is less time then it would take the average person to go to a blockchain block explorer to look at the transaction and examine the TX fees, inputs, ect.

I think it is safe to say that bitcoin is very usable as it is right now

[zendantom]

Two minutes is still too short. On average one in 120 blocks will, at minimum get orphaned, however it will be likely be much greater.

You don't think that it's an acceptable trade off to increase usability of the currency though?

The two minutes per block is pretty bad idea especially if the blocks become much bigger in size. The orphan rate would discourage adding transactions, thus keeping the blocks small instead! This two minutes per block could kill future Bitcoin adoption because miners could refuse creating big blocks

[the joint]

With BTC, I can give you a few models which remove the need for checkout lines, checkout counters, and even cashiers, and only require a couple security personnel at the doors

I'm listening. (or reading.) Go ahead, tell us about it.

I made a thread about it the other day

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=827247.0

This is one example.  I believe the general model works. though specific details need to be fleshed out.  Most of the concerns others have listed aren't too convincing, in my opinion.  But I wouldn't mind being proven wrong.

[MicroGuy]

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.... 

Gavin should just fork Bitcoin and fix this problem. That's what Satoshi would have done by now. 

[Dabs]

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.... 

Gavin should just fork Bitcoin and fix this problem. That's what Satoshi would have done by now. 

I don't think so. Satoshi was the one who specified the 10 minute target per block.

[MicroGuy]

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....  

Gavin should just fork Bitcoin and fix this problem. That's what Satoshi would have done by now.  

I don't think so. Satoshi was the one who specified the 10 minute target per block.

Yes. The block target interval was suitable then. But let's face it, Bitcoin is a different beast now.  

[Dabs]

I just bought a domain on namecheap. I funded it using bitcoin. They use BitPay. After about 5 to 10 seconds of sending my transaction, I was considered paid and funded. They're doing something right, you do not need to wait for the next block.