[EDU/GUIDE] Why is my Bitcoin transaction not confirming?

Nagadota

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Quote from: Taxidermista on May 26, 2017, 03:49:00 AM

I have stuck this transaction from 05/20 (6 days now), I don't know why it shows a diferent date (05/24) in "Received time":

https://blockchain.info/tx/d9d901c5e053b4879b61c41cf0f1d0d80c3cf99a10c6ef0650312185edab8c74

Can someone tell me exactly when will it be dropped from the mempool? I've heard "72 hours", "4 days", "many days", "a lifetime", etc.

I know there are thousands of bitcoin transactions lost in the limbo right now, I don't understand why this basic info is not available anywhere.

The info isn't available because it doesn't exist.

Not all nodes have the same time for the transaction to be automatically dropped as there isn't really one definitive mempool.

There is a default setting for when a Core node makes the transaction expire though, which used to be 72 hours (3 days). As of Bitcoin Core 1.4, I think that setting has been increased to 2 weeks. This is a good place to figure out what conditions usually make a transaction leave the mempool.

However, nodes could set their own rules. Your transaction could well stay in limbo for less time or more time than that.

Taxidermista

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I have stuck this transaction from 05/20 (6 days now), I don't know why it shows a diferent date (05/24) in "Received time":

https://blockchain.info/tx/d9d901c5e053b4879b61c41cf0f1d0d80c3cf99a10c6ef0650312185edab8c74

Can someone tell me exactly when will it be dropped from the mempool? I've heard "72 hours", "4 days", "many days", "a lifetime", etc.

I know there are thousands of bitcoin transactions lost in the limbo right now, I don't understand why this basic info is not available anywhere.

pooya87

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good information here.
just add an "EDU" or "Guide" tag in your topic in order to clarify what the content of the post is.

TraderTimm

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Following up on this, there have been a spate of posts on DumbIt and elsewhere claiming a "vanilla" transaction with the minimum fee is not getting confirms.

It turns out a lot of these posts are cleverly crafted transactions that are using UNCONFIRMED INPUTS, which is the real problem, not necessarily the latest transaction. I think this is part of some subtle astroturfing campaign to subvert Bitcoin and portray it as an unreliable payment system, when it is clearly not the case.

Beware any of these kinds of threads, the agenda is deeper than you think.

EdenHazard

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Quote from: crossabdd on February 27, 2016, 07:21:47 PM

If you are a daily Bitcoin user who sends and receives coins frequently chances are that you have run into a transaction that didn’t confirm immediately the next block. There are two main reasons why a Bitcoin transaction may not be confirming, the first is that the transaction is invalid and was created fraudulently, since the signature doesn’t math with the corresponding key the network rejects the transaction all together. The other most common reason that a transaction isn’t confirming is because the sender sent too low of a miners fee.

Conclusion
If your transaction isn’t confirming it is most likely because the miner’s fee is set too low. First check that the miner’s fee specified is higher than the minimum relay tx fee which is 0.0001. If it is, then make sure that the transaction properly propagated through the network by checking block explorers like blockchain.info or blockr.io. If the transaction doesn’t displays on the block explorers and shows as having 0 confirmations on your wallet or local node, then use Coinb.in to rebroadcast a transaction that will get picked up by another node and relayed. If the transaction has already been relayed then unless you set the opt-in rbf flag you will have to wait it out.

http://themerkle.com/education/why-is-my-bitcoin-transaction-not-confirming/

in transactions made through blockchain wallet, there are some fees that are applied in order to confirm the speed can be improved, if still no confirmation that require a very long time, probably the only fault of bitcoins block, and it rarely happens.

JasonXG

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I have had this problem a few times before due to changing a setting to reduce the miner fees, which was not very bright of me but hey live and learn, anyway remember this. Most of the time you only need to send 0.0001 btc as a fee, when you spending a fair amount (over 0.05 btc) then add 0.0005 as a fee. There is actually a chart i saw somewhere online and they show the ratio between cost of fee and time to complete tx. You never really need to go over 0.0005 after about 0.0008 it stops making much difference. Or you can go by the ratio byte size x (btc value) = fee. But i think that's too much to remember.

bebeko

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Quote from: leowonderful on February 28, 2016, 06:59:42 PM

I beg of you to never send transactions without a fee, EVER. The first time I tried, my transaction went through smooth (0.03 btc) without any problems. Second time, it took 4 days and was promptly dropped from the mempool. Don't ever do it, and if you do, pray that it will get confirmed because that's how hard it is for a no fee transaction to go through.

thanks for this information I'll remember your tip regarding sending transactions without fee.

ArethusaF38

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Quote

No, it means the transaction is forgotten because it failed to confirm and then the coins show up back in your wallet and this time you can re-send them with proper fee.

Ok, thanks for the info.

bitbaby

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Quote from: ArethusaF38 on February 28, 2016, 07:03:51 PM

So if it's dropped from the mempool, does that mean it's lost forever? I'm just short of five days waiting for this payment to be confirmed. Lesson learned.

No, it means the transaction is forgotten because it failed to confirm and then the coins show up back in your wallet and this time you can re-send them with proper fee.

Bitcoins never get lost, they either go to the address they were sent to or they come back to the address(es) from which they were sent from, they can however get stuck in a limbo for a while due to low fee or other reasons.

ArethusaF38

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So if it's dropped from the mempool, does that mean it's lost forever? I'm just short of five days waiting for this payment to be confirmed. Lesson learned.

leowonderful

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Bitcoin FTW!

I beg of you to never send transactions without a fee, EVER. The first time I tried, my transaction went through smooth (0.03 btc) without any problems. Second time, it took 4 days and was promptly dropped from the mempool. Don't ever do it, and if you do, pray that it will get confirmed because that's how hard it is for a no fee transaction to go through.

God Donut

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Quote from: --Encrypted-- on February 28, 2016, 06:04:54 PM

Quote from: God Donut on February 28, 2016, 05:43:11 PM

ok, so I've been stupid enough to send bitcoins without looking at the fee which is set by default to a minimum 1000 sats.
My transaction hasn't got a single confirmation for like 10 hours now. How long will it take for such a transaction to get confirmed?

that depends on the size and priority of your transaction. it can take a week if the tx is huge and someone keep re-broadcasting it (if all node stop re-broadcasting it then it'll be dropped from the mempool within 72 hours.).

btw 1000 sat fee are very low.

yeah, just didn't think about the fee since the default value worked fine for me before

also there's a lot of unconfirmed transactions right now https://blockchain.info/unconfirmed-transactions - I believe I've seen this number to be much lower some time ago

--Encrypted--

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hee-ho.

Quote from: Cyaren on February 28, 2016, 06:06:19 PM

You won't get that transaction confirmed for ages, sending with 0 fees is never a good idea... You should definitely send with good fees next time you send BTC.

by ages you mean a while, right? that transaction is likely to get confirmed in a day or two because of the high priority.

Cyaren

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Quote from: ArethusaF38 on February 28, 2016, 02:23:23 PM

Fair enough, but I just came looking for answers and we're not all going to go to the right place first time - there are a lot of resources out there.
I sent a payment four days ago, without paying fees (as an experiment), and it is still unconfirmed. It has been showing as 'high priority' on blockchain.info for a couple of days. Is this normal?

And yes, I was being a cheapskate but it was more through curiosity. Having learned my lesson, I now pay max fees for fastest confirmations! We all need to learn somehow. The only thing I'm curious about is will this transaction ever be confirmed or will it be stuck in the system forever unconfirmed?

https://blockchain.info/tx/51157d2692d6fe693d56b30555d13a90b54ec9e4b9a30381ed7ad0fd2dd8a3f8?show_adv=true

You won't get that transaction confirmed for ages, sending with 0 fees is never a good idea... You should definitely send with good fees next time you send BTC.

--Encrypted--

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hee-ho.

Quote from: God Donut on February 28, 2016, 05:43:11 PM

ok, so I've been stupid enough to send bitcoins without looking at the fee which is set by default to a minimum 1000 sats.
My transaction hasn't got a single confirmation for like 10 hours now. How long will it take for such a transaction to get confirmed?

that depends on the size and priority of your transaction. it can take a week if the tx is huge and someone keep re-broadcasting it (if all node stop re-broadcasting it then it'll be dropped from the mempool within 72 hours.).

btw 1000 sat fee are very low.

God Donut

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ok, so I've been stupid enough to send bitcoins without looking at the fee which is set by default to a minimum 1000 sats.
My transaction hasn't got a single confirmation for like 10 hours now. How long will it take for such a transaction to get confirmed?

BTW a couple of days ago I've also made a transaction with a minimum fee and it confirmed just fine (in about an hour). This is why I didn't bother this time

coinzat

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Young but I'm not that bold

The delaying in the first confirmation time is not always depending on the miner fees. Sometimes when all blocks are completely full, a transaction does not get confirmed although the right fees were paid. And that is due to the number of tx is very high in this time

ArethusaF38

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Quote from: TraderTimm on February 28, 2016, 11:19:09 AM

There have been a spate of people on reddit complaining about "Where's my confirms". This isn't new, but the frequency of people posting is. It looks a bit astro-turfing to me, because you'd think that anyone who was experiencing some difficulty would've searched reddit or read one of the recent threads without posting their own. The answers are there, but they keep posting these idiotic threads. It all boils down to not being a cheapskate when sending a transaction.

The miners fee right now is such a small fraction of a cent, it really isn't worth cheaping out on. It boggles my mind when people take a common resource, contribute nothing, and yet expect four-star performance. You get exactly what you deserve on the Bitcoin network.

Fair enough, but I just came looking for answers and we're not all going to go to the right place first time - there are a lot of resources out there.
I sent a payment four days ago, without paying fees (as an experiment), and it is still unconfirmed. It has been showing as 'high priority' on blockchain.info for a couple of days. Is this normal?

And yes, I was being a cheapskate but it was more through curiosity. Having learned my lesson, I now pay max fees for fastest confirmations! We all need to learn somehow. The only thing I'm curious about is will this transaction ever be confirmed or will it be stuck in the system forever unconfirmed?

https://blockchain.info/tx/51157d2692d6fe693d56b30555d13a90b54ec9e4b9a30381ed7ad0fd2dd8a3f8?show_adv=true

crossabdd

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this thread i move to beginner & help
hope more newbies, read this article then he can know his troble

TraderTimm

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There have been a spate of people on reddit complaining about "Where's my confirms". This isn't new, but the frequency of people posting is. It looks a bit astro-turfing to me, because you'd think that anyone who was experiencing some difficulty would've searched reddit or read one of the recent threads without posting their own. The answers are there, but they keep posting these idiotic threads. It all boils down to not being a cheapskate when sending a transaction.

The miners fee right now is such a small fraction of a cent, it really isn't worth cheaping out on. It boggles my mind when people take a common resource, contribute nothing, and yet expect four-star performance. You get exactly what you deserve on the Bitcoin network.

Topic: [EDU/GUIDE] Why is my Bitcoin transaction not confirming? (Read 9262 times)