Nostr

The more I know about Bitcoin, the more I realise how little I know….

Stupid question incoming:

What confirms a Bitcoin transaction?

I needed 5 confirmations on my transaction before I can use the Bitcoin in Jam. So I’ve been tracking the transaction on the mempool and after an hour and 5 blocks have been mined after the transactions, I’ve finally got the 5 I need.

So again my question, what confirms a transaction?

The miner is just trying to guess the hash, the node simply copies the blockchain and does it’s own verification while copying it.

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Discussion

Nathan Day 1y ago

You (or your wallet) decides the threshold.

Technically they are never 'confirmed', just increasingly and exponentially likely never to be double spent.

mike 1y ago

So what are the "6 confirmations" I'm seeing on the mempool?

i.e. what are the 13 confirmations I'm seeing on this random transaction:

https://mempool.space/tx/ed6503d333627916dc25076eaa1ae9039d19b45d29fa3ea051afed4fadca7c5a

S!ayer 1y ago

6 confirmations or blocks produced since your block which holds your txn.

The more blocks between your initial block vs the current block defines both it's consensus across the network (accepted) and the difficulty required to go back and change it.

Go further back and take a look at confirmations numbers..

mike 1y ago

I get it....

It's block height, number of mined blocks after yours.

YAAAAY

S!ayer 1y ago

Simple enough, right?

mike 1y ago

Yeh, finally got it

Duh 😂

S!ayer 1y ago

Here's the kicker though, 5 confirmations means it's going to take at least 50 mins minimum to confirm the txn.. now that in itself is slow AF when you have things like Algorand doing near instant finality on change.

mike 1y ago

Yeh, I'm playing with Jam on my node, it needs 5 confirmations before I can use the funds. I had just got to 6, so I'm good.

S!ayer 1y ago

Shit, 1 hour confirmation is shit.

Imagine using mastercard or visa and only being able to validate/confirm every purchase only after an hour...

Nathan Day 1y ago

Imagine sending a billion dollars via MasterCard.

One is a settlement layer, one is a payments later.

mike 1y ago

If you're buying a Lambo or house that's fine, everything else we need layer 2's.

We're never going to buy a coffee with L1 BTC.

S!ayer 1y ago

Therein lies the problem of trusted third parties.

Bitcoin was never meant to be in the sluggish state its in now.

Bitcoin should never have L2's and you should never have to trust a third party I.e. lighting network to do what you need to.

Trust less is meant to be just that.

Once you start questioning and DYOR, you open up a can of worms.

Alex 1y ago

“Bitcoin should never have layer 2s” What kind of nonsense is that lmao. It’s been known since the beginning we would have to scale in layers

Nathan Day 1y ago

6 or 13 other nodes in the network confirming the block mined by the miner is legit and there are no double spends.

These numbers increase over time as more nodes validate/confirm.

Look at some old TXs and you'll see v high numbers of confirmations as those TXs have had more time to propagate.

mike 1y ago

I finally got it, it's number of blocks mined after your confirmed block YAAAAY

Thank you 👍

d0708145... 1y ago

I think once it appears in the next 4 blocks after the initial one, they are your 5 confirmations. I suppose it's only "Confirmed" once (As in, the block it's mined in), then is confirmed as being valid, in subsequent blocks. I'm as clueless as you tbh but that's my take anyway😬😂.

mike 1y ago

What has confirmed this random transaction 191 times?:

https://mempool.space/tx/b38a8ecf3f451f0c12ea7796c50d36d32174510b17204afd75ca08f7523b21c2

nostr:note16j7feenlv670rr26492wfzm3t83n5xfa2lhl9dcfyg408y75g47qgca0k8