It shouldn’t be technical if you know how to handle Bitcoin transaction confirmation.
With unconfirmed transactions of Bitcoin, the flow of transactions will witness bottlenecks that could hinder the fulfilment of payments and receipts.
Network congestions could cause unconfirmed Bitcoin transaction issues asides from confirmation protocols required to validate transactions by Bitcoin miners.
Averagely, Bitcoin miners take about 10 mins to confirm or validate a BTC transaction owning to the complex computation required known as hashing.
Typically if your transaction does not scale through after 72 hours, you most likely have an unconfirmed Bitcoin transaction. Your Bitcoin should still rest in your wallet in this case.
In particular, problems with congestion on the blockchain network can delay Bitcoin transaction time, and have consistently been a problem when the system is overloaded.
Key Takeaways
• It takes about 10 minutes to confirm a Bitcoin transaction. A sender should seek confirmation on unconfirmed transactions after 72 hours.
• After waiting out the 72 hours time frame, you can check a Bitcoin Explorer to check status of your Bitcoin transaction status.
• More time to validate means more security. It is generally assumed that a transaction after 6 confirmations is safe. Meaning your block stays ahead and is not the newest block to get confirmed
• The Replace by Fee (RBF) protocol is highly essential for Bitcoin retransmission. Replace by fee refers to a Bitcoin protocol that uses a transaction with a higher fee to replace an initially unconfirmed transaction stored in then mempool
• Recommended Apps for Bitcoin transaction confirmation are https://live.blockcypher.com/ or https://www.blockchain.com/explorer
SEE ALSO: How To Cancel An Unconfirmed Bitcoin Transaction
SEE ALSO: How Long Does A Bitcoin Transaction Take Before Confirmation
Bitcoin Transaction Confirmation
Bitcoin is said to be a non-confirmed transaction when the entire Bitcoin block is overloaded by a specific transaction or if it is transmitted without confirmation after 72 hours.
If that happens, however, you will have to cancel the Bitcoin transaction completely and here I will show you how to do so.
Before we go on, I’d like you to know that for each Bitcoin transaction to be confirmed, the number of confirmations required is usually 3 or a little higher.
If it doesn’t count, the BTC Blockchain confirmation has a problem and can certainly lead to unconfirmed Bitcoin transactions.
You could check the progress if you’ve had a 24 hour unconfirmed Bitcoin transaction, as it is easy to track Bitcoin transactions.
Fortunately, you can try to see whether blockchain refunds can be used to relive or to speed up confirmation of the transaction.
You can also check Bitcoin Explorer to confirm your transaction status
Bitcoin Transaction Confirmation
The Blockchain is so designed that, even if the blockchain transaction chart does not contain any Bitcoin transaction confirmation, it cannot be reversible.
I suggest that you don’t change the setting of Bitcoin transaction charges in most of the wallets, since you may mistakenly opt for fewer mining charges that miners cannot use to confirm your transaction as soon as possible.
The wallet for cryptocurrency should be used which automatically selects the miners’ fee. This helps you avoid such a scenario when your Bitcoin transaction is stuck for hours in the blocks.
I recommend securing your Bitcoin investment asset, especially when trading or using them immediately to prevent the loss of your Bitcoin investment asset from the online exchange wallet to your offline crypto-wallet.
You should buy one of the HD (Heuristic Deterministic) hardware wallet packages, which will help you avoid locking your cryptocurrency investment.
Why Is my BTC Transaction Unconfirmed
There is so much that your Bitcoin transaction can keep for over 24 hours, but the following are the most commonly known reasons.
1. The transaction is still underway.
2. The payment was too low or not fully included in your choice of transaction.
3. For more than 24 hours, the stalled transaction was unconfirmed.
How to Reverse a Bitcoin Transaction
Firstly, make sure that there are no confirmations, or this method may not work as expected before reverting Bitcoin unconfirmed transactions.
Even if the Bitcoin transaction has not lasted for days without confirmation, you need to be sure of the confirmation state.
But if you are sure there’s no confirmation yet, use the transaction ID that you got to track the transaction node with a block explorer.
Please remember that if the confirmation number is larger than zero, you will have to wait until the transaction is complete because the Bitcoin transaction cannot be reversed.
Canceling Bitcoin Transaction Confirmation
It is possible to cancel a Bitcoin transaction confirmation but it can only be done as described below:
• Substitute fee – Replace by fee (RBF Protocol)
• Increased fee Transaction with double expenditure
Few wallets support the RBF protocol enabling you to re-transmit bitcoin with a higher charge (i.e. miner Fee). This cancels your Bitcoin transaction.
You must select this feature as you send Bitcoin first to use this specific feature in a wallet that supports it.
If you cannot use RBF, you can still cancel the transaction with a higher transaction fee using a process known as double expenditures.
You will need to make a new transaction with the same amount as the original transaction which is in the Blockchain confirmation to make double expenses.
Make sure the transaction charge is sufficiently high to confirm the transaction by the miners.
It is possible that you need another crypto wallet that will allow this feature to be retransmitted for confirmation to the miners.
Common Causes Of Unconfirmed Transactions
1. Submitting an insufficient fee or very tiny sum of Bitcoin
Every Bitcoin transaction must be validated and secured into the Bitcoin blockchain network. If you send a Bitcoin payment, the transaction will be confirmed by you and a miner’s fee is added. Your transaction may never confirm if an insufficient fee is included.
2. Double donation of the same coins
This should normally not happen in transactions generated by Coinbase (our backend systems are intended to prevent that) but, in general, one of them would never be confirmed by the network if two transactions try to spend the same coins.
3. Try to spend coins without confirmation
You will not generate your transaction if you try to spend coins that appear on your account until such coins are confirmed.
4. The network is highly voluminous
The volume of cryptocurrency in circulation is large, and more transactions are competing to get secured into the blockchain network.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
1. Why is my Bitcoin transaction taking so long?
The reason the transaction might be taking so long may be due to network congestion and you might have to wait for a few more hours. Or confirm status with a blockchain explorer tool like Go to https://live.blockcypher.com/ or https://www.blockchain.com/explorer.
2. How long does it take to get 3 Bitcoin confirmations?
It takes roughly 30 minutes to 1 hour to get 3 Bitcoin confirmations.
3. What is the longest a Bitcoin transaction can take?
The longest a Bitcoin transaction can take to get confirmed is 2 days. Sometimes, transactions can take up to 72 hours.
Final Thoughts
Having unconfirmed transactions can be attributed to a variety of reasons.
Gladly, solutions have been provided as to how these problems can be rectified and how they can be avoided in the future.
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