4 ms·

I don't really follow bitcoin but the NPR podcast that linked to this NYT story claims that 'some bitcoin transactions are not getting processed at all.' Is th

I don't really follow bitcoin but the NPR podcast that linked to this NYT story claims that 'some bitcoin transactions are not getting processed at all.' Is that really true?

mcherm 10y ago
Yes, it is. Bitcoin transactions pay a transaction fee which the person creating the transaction can specify. It can be any amount INCLUDING ZERO. The theory is that paying higher transaction fees will get your payment processed faster. Recently, low fees have not even been being processed and many are paying around 3% for prompt processing
- wallace_f 10y ago
  So I pay someone in bitcoin, it doesn't get processed. I say ok, then I put another transaction through and this time pay a fee to get my transaction processed. Now, that one gets processed, but later on my initial transaction also was processed. It seems like these problems would make it more and more difficult to really use bitcoin.
  - joosters 10y ago
    Yes, this happens regularly. It's very difficult to prevent, because unconfirmed transactions are not guaranteed to expire after a known time. Your first transaction has been broadcast across the whole network of nodes, all of which have different retention settings. Even if one node drops your transaction, it is possible that another node will re-broadcast it again.
    - curiousgal 10y ago
      Just to clarify, unconfirmed transactions get dropped from the mempool after 3 days (default setting).
      - joosters 10y ago
        There have been unconfirmed transactions that got into a block after a week. All it takes is for one node to keep it a little bit longer. Also, if the node re-broadcasts it, other nodes might put it back into their pool.
  - TD-Linux 10y ago
    You can't have both transactions processed - they conflict with each other. So you won't accidentally send someone double.
    - wallace_f 10y ago
      Ok so one answer says it happens regularly and yours say it won't happen.
      - TD-Linux 10y ago
        jooster's comment says that if you broadcast a transaction to the network and it doesn't confirm, it might confirm any time in the future - which is true. You need to assume that any of the transactions you issue will confirm - e.g. if you issue two with differing fees, you don't know which one will confirm until it happens. But once one is confirmed, all other transactions that spend the same coins can no longer be mined. So I think both comments are right, we just interpreted your question differently.
        wallace_f 10y ago
        That makes sense, thanks
  - makomk 10y ago
    The developers are planning to add support for actually replacing transactions by a new version with a higher fee soon, along with allowing the recipient to pay a fee to make the transaction process faster (think that might already be in now, actually).
codingmyway 10y ago
There is a back log for short periods yes, but if you pay a high enough fee your transaction will go through earlier. When things quiet down or more blocks are mined in a given time the back log goes down. It's a supply and demand issue. If you want to use the blockchain to process transactions you have to pay more the higher the demand until demand levels out. If you didn't pay high enough a fee and get stuck at the back of the queue you are stuck until a proposal that will let you increase the fee for an existing transaction is implemented or the queue goes down. The segregated witness change will increase the capacity by 40% which should be enough to last until lightning nodes take some of the strain. There is no centralized-decentralized fork in the road. We need to have both.
- JumpCrisscross 10y ago
  if you pay a high enough fee your transaction will go through earlier How high, out of curiosity? How do these compare with banks and other traditional fund-transfer services?
  - aianus 10y ago
    Tens of cents at most. It is still much cheaper than any competing funds transfer mechanism here in Canada.
    - joosters 10y ago
      Are you really claiming that there's no free way of sending money to another account in Canada?
      - aianus 10y ago
        Electronically? Not that I know of. I guess you could take a picture of a check and send it to someone else to deposit through their phone. But that's limited to $1000 at a time.
      - Kubuxu 10y ago
        Funny isn't it? In 2nd world country (Poland) all internal transfers (inside country) are free.

I don't really follow bitcoin but the NPR podcast that linked to this NYT story claims that 'some bitcoin transactions are not getting processed at all.' Is that really true?

mcherm 10y ago

Yes, it is. Bitcoin transactions pay a transaction fee which the person creating the transaction can specify. It can be any amount INCLUDING ZERO. The theory is that paying higher transaction fees will get your payment processed faster. Recently, low fees have not even been being processed and many are paying around 3% for prompt processing

wallace_f 10y ago
So I pay someone in bitcoin, it doesn't get processed. I say ok, then I put another transaction through and this time pay a fee to get my transaction processed. Now, that one gets processed, but later on my initial transaction also was processed. It seems like these problems would make it more and more difficult to really use bitcoin.
- joosters 10y ago
  Yes, this happens regularly. It's very difficult to prevent, because unconfirmed transactions are not guaranteed to expire after a known time. Your first transaction has been broadcast across the whole network of nodes, all of which have different retention settings. Even if one node drops your transaction, it is possible that another node will re-broadcast it again.
  - curiousgal 10y ago
    Just to clarify, unconfirmed transactions get dropped from the mempool after 3 days (default setting).
    - joosters 10y ago
      There have been unconfirmed transactions that got into a block after a week. All it takes is for one node to keep it a little bit longer. Also, if the node re-broadcasts it, other nodes might put it back into their pool.
- TD-Linux 10y ago
  You can't have both transactions processed - they conflict with each other. So you won't accidentally send someone double.
  - wallace_f 10y ago
    Ok so one answer says it happens regularly and yours say it won't happen.
    - TD-Linux 10y ago
      jooster's comment says that if you broadcast a transaction to the network and it doesn't confirm, it might confirm any time in the future - which is true. You need to assume that any of the transactions you issue will confirm - e.g. if you issue two with differing fees, you don't know which one will confirm until it happens. But once one is confirmed, all other transactions that spend the same coins can no longer be mined. So I think both comments are right, we just interpreted your question differently.
      - wallace_f 10y ago
        That makes sense, thanks
- makomk 10y ago
  The developers are planning to add support for actually replacing transactions by a new version with a higher fee soon, along with allowing the recipient to pay a fee to make the transaction process faster (think that might already be in now, actually).

codingmyway 10y ago

There is a back log for short periods yes, but if you pay a high enough fee your transaction will go through earlier. When things quiet down or more blocks are mined in a given time the back log goes down. It's a supply and demand issue. If you want to use the blockchain to process transactions you have to pay more the higher the demand until demand levels out. If you didn't pay high enough a fee and get stuck at the back of the queue you are stuck until a proposal that will let you increase the fee for an existing transaction is implemented or the queue goes down. The segregated witness change will increase the capacity by 40% which should be enough to last until lightning nodes take some of the strain. There is no centralized-decentralized fork in the road. We need to have both.

JumpCrisscross 10y ago
if you pay a high enough fee your transaction will go through earlier How high, out of curiosity? How do these compare with banks and other traditional fund-transfer services?
- aianus 10y ago
  Tens of cents at most. It is still much cheaper than any competing funds transfer mechanism here in Canada.
  - joosters 10y ago
    Are you really claiming that there's no free way of sending money to another account in Canada?
    - aianus 10y ago
      Electronically? Not that I know of. I guess you could take a picture of a check and send it to someone else to deposit through their phone. But that's limited to $1000 at a time.
    - Kubuxu 10y ago
      Funny isn't it? In 2nd world country (Poland) all internal transfers (inside country) are free.