Bitcoin Deposit Confirmation
Roughly every ten minutes, a new block is created and added to the blockchain through the mining process. This block verifies and records any new transactions. The transactions are then said to have been confirmed by the Bitcoin network.
For example, if Sean sends one bitcoin to John, this transaction will remain “unconfirmed” until the next block is created.
In the case that your fee is too low: Now that child-pays-for-parent has been merged, you(or any of the recipients of your unconfirmed transaction) could spend the Bitcoin received and the fee associated with that second transaction will help prioritize the confirmation of the original transaction. Provided the Bitcoin network is not under heavy load and the network fee allows the deposit to be included in the next mined block, a BTC deposit would take 30+ minutes (3 confirmations x 10 minutes) to be considered valid and displayed in your wallet balance.
Every Bitcoin deposit on the exchange will be run through a proprietary analysis to determine its expected confirmation time. Once the transactions passed the criteria, the amount will be pre-credited to the Gemini exchange account in question. CryptoSkull is a lucrative and addictive minesweeper type bitcoin game. Use our casino faucet to start gambling with free bitcoin!
Once that block is created and the new transaction is verified and included in that block, the transaction will have one confirmation. Approximately every ten minutes thereafter, a new block is created and the transaction is reconfirmed by the Bitcoin network.
While some services are instant or only require one confirmation, many Bitcoin companies will require more as each confirmation greatly decreases the likelihood of a payment being reversed. It is common for six confirmations to be required which takes about an hour.
How many Bitcoin Confirmations are Enough?
0How to Check Bitcoin Confirmations
Once you make a transaction, your wallet should give you an option to view the transaction on a block explorer or give you the transaction ID.
A transaction ID looks like this: 7a43510802e113b7059851ef0a8a5c3625db37541861dd982f56253b2d5c4ff9
To check the number of confirmations for a transaction, paste the ID into a block explorer like blockchain.info:
Press enter and then you’ll see more details about your transaction:
Try a New Wallet
If your wallet is sending transactions that get stuck, you may be using an old wallet that doesn’t calculate fees properly. Try one of these:
COMPARISON
Ledger Nano X
- Good for storing large amounts of crypto
- Supports 1,000+ coins
- Can be used with iOS & Android
BRD
- Great wallet for iOS and Android
- Supports many coins, like BTC and ETH
- Clean interface makes it easy to use
Electrum
- Desktop wallet that works for Mac, Windows and Linux
- Simple to use, but also offers power features for experienced users
- Can connect to hardware wallets
What is the Average Bitcoin Confirmation Time?
There is a greater than 60% chance your transaction will be confirmed within 10 minutes if you pay a high enough fee:
Having an Issue With Your Wallet?
Some wallets are not updated to send transactions with the proper fee.
Our guide on the best bitcoin wallets features wallets with good fee estimators. Read it here!
FAQ
Is your Bitcoin Transaction Unconfirmed for Hours?
- FAQ
- Is it possible for a transaction to confirm in less than 10 minutes?
If your transaction is unconfirmed for hours, just wait. If more than 72 hours pass and your transaction still isn’t confirmed, you can re-send the transaction.
We recommend using Electrum wallet with a hardware wallet like the Ledger Nano X, since it allows you to raise the fee on transactions if they get stuck.
How Many Confirmations Does Coinbase Need?
Coinbase requires three confirmations before a transaction will show up and be spendable in your Coinbase account.
Is it possible for a transaction to confirm in less than 10 minutes?
Yes! There are several ways this could happen.
As mentioned above, block times are targeted to be 10 minutes. However, sometimes they are more and sometimes they are less.
Difficulty Improperly Adjusted
If the difficulty is set too low, then blocktimes will tend to be shorter than 10 minutes. Difficulty is adjusted every 2 weeks, but the way it is adjusted is based on the previous two weeks average block times. This generally does a good job of ensuring 10 minute blocks, but it is not perfect.
Hashing Power Flood
If a lot of mining [hashing power is suddenly added to the network quickly, then this hashing power wont be accounted for until the next difficulty adjustment, resulting in faster block times on average.
Miner Luck
Sometimes blocks are found in minutes simply because of luck. The truth is, mining bitcoin is about guessing the answers to complex math problems. Guessing the answer should, statistically speaking, take about 10 minutes. However, sometimes you get lucky and find it much sooner.
Your Luck
Assuming 10 minute block timers are perfectly calibrated, and none of the above occurs, you could still get your first confirmation in less than 10 minutes. Let’s say a block is found and five minutes later you broadcast a trancastion with a higher fee than anyone else on the network. If that were the case, you would get your first confirmation in 5 minutes.
How can I speed up confirmation times?
There is no way for you to speed up the rate at which blocks are added to the blockchain. However, you can speed up the likelyhood your transaction is included in the next block by increasing the fees you pay for the transaction.
You can find what is considered a high fee at any given time by looking at our fee calculator.
Does Segwit decrease confirmation times?
Technically, no. Segwit does not change the amount of time needed for blocks to confirm. However, transactions using segwit are cheaper because they are smaller. That means the fees you would pay for an old bitcoin transaction sending the same amount of coins is higher than it would be with Segwit. You can, therefore, put the money you save into paying more fees to increase the chance the transaction ends up in the next block.
However, no amount of fees can get your transaction through faster than the next block. And the time it takes to for the next block to be found varies depending on current hashing power and difficulty.
Bitcoin Deposit Confirmation Number
My transaction is stuck. How do I get it onto a block?
There are a few ways to fix a stuck transaction. One way is to do a replace by fee (RBF) transaction. The other is to do a child-pays-for-parent (CPFP) transaction. You can also use a bitcoin accelerator service, but accelerators are very expensive and better, cheaper options are available.
These are more advanced techniques, so we wrote up an entire page about how to get a transaction into a block.
How Many Bitcoin Confirmations
If you own a Ledger hardware wallet and you are using Ledger Live, you can prepare your transaction so that replace by fee is possible. Just tick the switch in the advanced options on the second screen (amount) when you make your transaction:
How Long For Bitcoin Confirmation
If this is an issue for you, learn more about getting a transaction unstuck.