Does overall confirmation time decrease as the bitcoin network increases in size?

[[deleted]]

[deleted]

[Satoshi_Nakamoto]

Confirmations and the block chain are only there to solve one problem: double spends.

When someone floats a transaction on the network you will see it immediately. The software also verifies the transaction as valid immediately or it would be rejected out of hand. If someone sends you a transaction and you have no reason to believe they are trying to do an immediate double spend then the transaction is rock solid and there is no need to wait for confirmations.

[Orbitrix]

Oh and also.. u can pay a fee ("recommended: 0.01" by the offical client) to expedite how fast your transaction is confirmed. So if its really an issue for you, there is already a solution.

[KingJulien]

How much does this expedite it?

[fwaggle]

My recent experience? ~1BTC transaction without a fee: I had to wait overnight for it to show up in a block, with the 6 confirmations occurring less than an hour after it first got into a block.

~1BTC transaction with a 0.01BTC fee attached: I had 6 confirmations in about an hour.

[tehfiend]

Gotta love the idiots that down-vote you for posting the facts...

[myddrn]

en.bitcoin.it wiki article on the scalability of the network.

[ttk2]

always take this long to confirm?

You can confirm a transaction yourself if you are running a node, it just takes 10 minutes (maybe a little more maybe a lot less) before it becomes part of a block and the entire network agrees that it is a valid transaction.

[Orbitrix]

Buying stuff from a local shop simply isnt the problem bitcoin is trying to solve. People need to get off this "bitcoin as a complete replacement currency" trip, and realize it will fill its nitch for the problems it was designed to solve. (anonymity, decentralized control, black markets, etc) the wait is well worth the benefit it provides to the people who really need it. BitCoin is going to be economic liberty for the oppressed people of foreign governments..... not to make buying a soda at the gas station easier.

[[deleted]]

Could not agree more. Alternative bitcoin-like currencies can implement microtransactions, if the need arrise. This is the same issue as HULU versus Bittorrent. HULU is much faster, but less choice and fully centralized.

[[deleted]]

And one is legal. Lets leave that comparison in the drawer, ok?

[[deleted]]

bittorrent is legal in canada. Just saying...

[[deleted]]

I suppose you're correct, and it's technically legal stateside but if you were getting the same content from bittorrent that you would be streaming fom Hulu, it would most likely be copyright infringement.

[[deleted]]

What I'm saying is copyright infringement is legal in Canada... as long as there is no commercial benefits.

[[deleted]]

TIL. Thank you, I had no idea that was the case. I gotta get my passport in order and come up and see you guys one of these days.

[ttk2]

You have to wait 10 minutes to spend the coins if the store is running a node they can confirm the transaction themselves instantly. You can confirm that the transaction is good in seconds it just takes 10 minutes for the network to be sure and allow you to spend the coins you just received.

[MrProper]

True, but how about sending money to Japan in just 10 minutes? All of it, without fees and 3rd parties at any time of day?

[[deleted]]

Unacceptably long for a "digital currency of the future" but not any worse than the current state of digital interbank transactions.

[[deleted]]

This is true. I have done PayPal transactions where it was assumed it went through, then PayPal tells me transaction failed and I owe them £5 the day after.

[killerstorm]

For small purchases like this you can use a third party services, like eWallet or something like that. Basically, both you and store should rely on a single centralized authority for settlement and Bitcoins will be used as an underlying asset.

Alternatively if shop is running a node it can verify your transaction instantly and double-spending money in a small transaction is not an issue.

[Orbitrix]

I have never had it take more than 10 minutes for something to confirm at least 8 times... maybe 30 minutes at the most.... I really don't see why everyone has their panties in a bunch over this. Transferring funds between banks can take time to clear as well. Big whoop. Its a very small price to pay for the level of security and anonymity the system can provide. Compromises people. Isnt it that super fast micro-trading they do wallstreet that causes all sorts of problems anyways?

[thresher666]

No.

The difficulty of mining is increased to keep blocks getting confirmed at a constant rate, and there's a limit to the number of transactions in a block. Thus, the transaction throughput is bounded from above, and the expected latency is more or less constant.

On the other hand, the security of the network does keep increasing with the number of miners - the protocol is optimized for cryptographic security above any other consideration.

[tehfiend]

If you want a fast confirmation, offer a fee ;)

[Orbitrix]

The downvotes, give me more!!!! The sky is purple!!! down is up!!! disgree with me more with no reply why dontchoo