What has confirmed this random transaction 191 times?:
https://mempool.space/tx/b38a8ecf3f451f0c12ea7796c50d36d32174510b17204afd75ca08f7523b21c2
nostr:note16j7feenlv670rr26492wfzm3t83n5xfa2lhl9dcfyg408y75g47qgca0k8
Discussion
When you send a bitcoin transaction it goes to mempool first (if it is valid). It's then unconfirmed.
When a miner chooses to include it in a block it becomes confirmed (once).
Each time a new block is mined after that and build on top of the first conformation it gets confirmed again.
Sometimes a Blockchain gets reorganised and a confirmed transaction can become unconfirmed.
This can especially happen within first 2-3 confirmations.
It's highly highly unlikely to reorganise after 6 confirmations.
That's why large amounts should have 6 confirmations before being treated as settled.
Thank you, I finally got it.
Sometimes we realise how much we still don't understand 😂
It's a really clever distribution of control. It doesn't get into the mempool if majority of nodes don't approve it... And it doesn't get mined if no miner "approves" of it.
So both nodes and miners are needed to make sats flow.
Genius
The advantage to more confirmations is that more blocks have been found, meaning it's that much harder for an attacker to outpace the truth. You can accept 0 confirmations if you want, but that's generally considered riskier than any higher number. Small amounts may be worth the time savings, like if you sold a Coke to someone. They are very unlikely to go and attack the network to double spend that amount. But 1,000,000 BTC.... A different story.
If I sold someone a house, I'd probably want multiple confirmations. If I sold them a golf club, I wouldn't give a fuck.