Unlike banking systems, in which it is difficult to find the necessary information about a transaction, money transfers toblockchain have a truly high level of transparency.
Information about the transaction can be found inblock browsers by bitcoin address, by block number and by transaction hash. This feature is extremely useful if the user is not sure that he sent the currency to the desired address or if he is interested in the status of the transaction. These features also help law enforcement keep track of illegal cryptocurrency use cases.
Why is a Bitcoin transaction confirmed for so long?
Scalability – one of the long-standing problems of the Bitcoin network.
In order for the cryptocurrency transfer to complete, usually six confirmations are required on the network. This means that the transaction process can take from 10 minutes to a day (in some cases even longer).
Bitcoin's low scalability means thatThe network can currently process approximately 7 transactions per second. Such figures seem quite meager compared to Visa, which can process 24,000 transactions per second. Let us remind you that a new Visa debit card with cashback in Bitcoin was recently released.
What if the transaction is not confirmed?
The main reason for an unconfirmed bitcoin transaction is often a low commission.
An unconfirmed transaction is a transfer,which after creation was not added to the block. The network is supported by miners who confirm transactions. Miners prefer transactions with higher commissions. Transactions with lower fees go to the miners memory pools until the next block is detected. If the transaction is not confirmed again, it waits for the next block.
Thus, a transaction with low fees can be stuck in the memory pool for several days, and in the worst case for several weeks.
If you need to transfer funds to compresseddeadlines, you can manually increase the commission before sending. This feature is available in almost all wallets and exchangers. On the other hand, if you are not in a hurry, you can save money on commissions and wait a little longer.
Most crypto wallets and exchangers alsosupport the function of dynamic commissions. Such services monitor the activity of miners in the network and automatically set a commission at which the transaction will be included in the nearest or one of the closest blocks.
Is it possible to cancel a Bitcoin transaction?
This is a very common question and the answer is – No.
The blockchain is designed in such a way that transactions on the network are irreversible. Once the transfer has been sent to the network, you lose control over it.
This is why you should always check the address carefully before sending. Don't forget to also check the number of cryptocurrencies being sent!
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Based on materialscointelegraph.com
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