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Topic: BTC Transaction time (Read 2240 times)

hero member
Activity: 882
Merit: 1000
Exhausted
September 28, 2014, 10:06:41 PM
#48
I'm pretty new to bitcoin but I have a question I'm unsure of. Can you spend bitcoin as soon as it is sent to you or do you have to wait for it to fully confirm? I've read different answers that you can and cant. Thanks.

I think that varies from "client to client" (the protocol won't stop it - but you'll end up with "stuck txs" due to the dependencies).

From memory the most recent versions of "bitcoin-core" won't use unconfirmed "inputs" (but don't quote me on that - as I am not 100% certain).


You are right.
With bitcoin core, you can choose to spend your own unconfirmed changes, but by default you can't use the unconfirmed outputs from someone else unless you create the raw transaction directly.
legendary
Activity: 1890
Merit: 1078
Ian Knowles - CIYAM Lead Developer
September 28, 2014, 11:25:53 AM
#47
Guys - the "who is right and wrong" about this is really "not important" (apart from perhaps yourselves).

The sane advice is that you "don't accept 0 confirmations" for anything that you can't *also reverse* (such as web-hosting).

(the whole "I'm right and he's wrong" stuff is really just rather *boring*)
legendary
Activity: 1260
Merit: 1019
September 28, 2014, 11:21:43 AM
#46
Quote
you dont actually need to know someone running a mining pool as there are services out there for this.
There are no such services. Now. Point.
wrong.
There are no such services. There is a site which declares that it is theoretically possible.
Do you see the difference?
OK, let me add one word. There are no such services working now.
Wanna to argue? Show me your results.
copper member
Activity: 1498
Merit: 1520
No I dont escrow anymore.
September 28, 2014, 10:37:17 AM
#45

Assuming the website does what "it says it does" it still cannot "undo a confirmed tx" (only a 0 confirmation tx).

So the basic advice of "don't use 0 confirmations" remains.


Yep, exectly my point Smiley

Mabye I just got this:

Quote
you dont actually need to know someone running a mining pool as there are services out there for this.
There are no such services. Now. Point.

wrong.
legendary
Activity: 1890
Merit: 1078
Ian Knowles - CIYAM Lead Developer
September 28, 2014, 10:35:35 AM
#44

Assuming the website does what "it says it does" it still cannot "undo a confirmed tx" (only a 0 confirmation tx).

So the basic advice of "don't use 0 confirmations" remains.
copper member
Activity: 1498
Merit: 1520
No I dont escrow anymore.
September 28, 2014, 10:32:50 AM
#43
Quote
you dont actually need to know someone running a mining pool as there are services out there for this.
There are no such services. Now. Point.

Lets derail this thread even further...

http://www.bitundo.com/
legendary
Activity: 1260
Merit: 1019
September 28, 2014, 10:19:33 AM
#42
Quote
I didn't check - but even if they are not in existence "today" that doesn't mean that they won't be readily available "tomorrow".
That's correct!
legendary
Activity: 1890
Merit: 1078
Ian Knowles - CIYAM Lead Developer
September 28, 2014, 10:14:21 AM
#41
There are no such services. Now. Point.

I didn't check - but even if they are not in existence "today" that doesn't mean that they won't be readily available "tomorrow".
legendary
Activity: 1260
Merit: 1019
September 28, 2014, 10:12:26 AM
#40
Quote
you dont actually need to know someone running a mining pool as there are services out there for this.
There are no such services. Now. Point.
legendary
Activity: 1890
Merit: 1078
Ian Knowles - CIYAM Lead Developer
September 28, 2014, 10:11:37 AM
#39
I'm pretty new to bitcoin but I have a question I'm unsure of. Can you spend bitcoin as soon as it is sent to you or do you have to wait for it to fully confirm? I've read different answers that you can and cant. Thanks.

I think that varies from "client to client" (the protocol won't stop it - but you'll end up with "stuck txs" due to the dependencies).

From memory the most recent versions of "bitcoin-core" won't use unconfirmed "inputs" (but don't quote me on that - as I am not 100% certain).
legendary
Activity: 1890
Merit: 1078
Ian Knowles - CIYAM Lead Developer
September 28, 2014, 10:10:22 AM
#38
The sad thing is that you dont actually need to know someone running a mining pool as there are services out there for this. Thus, allways be sceptic when a TX has no fees Wink

E.g. bitundo

Not surprised - which is why accepting 0 confirmations is "not a smart idea" in general.
member
Activity: 64
Merit: 10
September 28, 2014, 10:09:28 AM
#37
I'm pretty new to bitcoin but I have a question I'm unsure of. Can you spend bitcoin as soon as it is sent to you or do you have to wait for it to fully confirm? I've read different answers that you can and cant. Thanks.

1MCLsSdL6NijcZFL2jQWo3oEvHWoez6uSU
copper member
Activity: 1498
Merit: 1520
No I dont escrow anymore.
September 28, 2014, 10:07:46 AM
#36
But the problem we are concerning here is the potential double spending attempts, which if success the transaction may never be confirmed.

Yup - the easiest way to "game" is to send a tx with "no fee" (that has reasonably aged inputs and a not too tiny output amount) through the "normal channels" (which looks legit but has "low priority") and then send the same tx with a "fee" (and of course a *different output address*) directly to a "friendly mining pool" (i.e. one that prefers fees over no fees) very shortly afterwards.


The sad thing is that you dont actually need to know someone running a mining pool as there are services out there for this. Thus, allways be sceptic when a TX has no fees Wink

E.g. bitundo
legendary
Activity: 1890
Merit: 1078
Ian Knowles - CIYAM Lead Developer
September 28, 2014, 09:51:59 AM
#35
But the problem we are concerning here is the potential double spending attempts, which if success the transaction may never be confirmed.

Yup - the easiest way to "game" is to send a tx with "no fee" (that has reasonably aged inputs and a not too tiny output amount) through the "normal channels" (which looks legit but has "low priority") and then send the same tx with a "fee" (and of course a *different output address*) directly to a "friendly mining pool" (i.e. one that prefers fees over no fees) very shortly afterwards.
hero member
Activity: 868
Merit: 1000
September 28, 2014, 09:47:11 AM
#34
So after all, accepting 0 conf. transaction isn't safe at all, even if the transacted amount is rather small and the transaction has enough fee?

if you send 1 btc with 0 fee it will still confirm eventually. But 0.001 with 0 fee wont confirm and will go back to the senders address, scamming the seller from his item.

But the problem we are concerning here is the potential double spending attempts, which if success the transaction may never be confirmed.
hero member
Activity: 868
Merit: 1000
September 28, 2014, 09:44:19 AM
#33
So after all, accepting 0 conf. transaction isn't safe at all, even if the transacted amount is rather small?

It is always possible to "game" 0 confirmations - so yes you are taking the risk of getting played if you do this.

Of course this depends upon "what you are selling" (if it is a service like a VPS you can always *switch it off* when the payment later fails - but if it is a "coffee" then you "probably don't want it returned after it has been consumed"). Smiley

I see. Thanks for your clarifications.
So, it seems the only safe way to handle coffee shop and supermarket payments is to do it through offchain transactions.
full member
Activity: 700
Merit: 100
September 28, 2014, 09:43:03 AM
#32
So after all, accepting 0 conf. transaction isn't safe at all, even if the transacted amount is rather small and the transaction has enough fee?

if you send 1 btc with 0 fee it will still confirm eventually. But 0.001 with 0 fee wont confirm and will go back to the senders address, scamming the seller from his item.
legendary
Activity: 1890
Merit: 1078
Ian Knowles - CIYAM Lead Developer
September 28, 2014, 09:38:03 AM
#31
So after all, accepting 0 conf. transaction isn't safe at all, even if the transacted amount is rather small?

It is always possible to "game" 0 confirmations - so yes you are taking the risk of getting played if you do this.

Of course this depends upon "what you are selling" (if it is a service like a VPS you can always *switch it off* when the payment later fails - but if it is a "coffee" then you "probably don't want it returned after it has been consumed"). Smiley
hero member
Activity: 868
Merit: 1000
September 28, 2014, 09:36:31 AM
#30
So after all, accepting 0 conf. transaction isn't safe at all, even if the transacted amount is rather small and the transaction has enough fee?
legendary
Activity: 1890
Merit: 1078
Ian Knowles - CIYAM Lead Developer
September 28, 2014, 09:34:46 AM
#29
Yes, my problem is basically that for me a double spend would be if one of the TX had at least one confirmation, but I cant tell how common this idea is.

Small re-orgs (of 1-2 blocks) do happen fairly often but generally don't involve such "tx replacements" (although that of course *could happen*) this is why you should care about confirmations (the more valuable the tx the more you'd generally want to wait).

If I was say accepting BTC for something as valuable as a *house* then I'd probably want to wait for 100 confirmations (although maybe you think that would be "going overboard").

For a face-to-face situation involving even a few thousand dollars I would be basically happy with just a couple.
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