How to avoid waiting days for your Bitcoin
With the recent surge in Bitcoin price, the scalability of the network is really being tested. At the time of this writing, there are around 190,000 unconfirmed transactions on the blockchain. Check the unconfirmed transactions here https://blockchain.info/unconfirmed-transactions.
That is actually a lot better than yesterday where it was sitting around 250k. While some have to wait days for their transaction, here is how to take it down to hours or a lot less. But first, what determines the speed of a transaction? For an order to be confirmed, it needs to be in a block that is being mined. And who mines the block? Miners of course. But you knew that. You see, miners are actual people who manage machines to constantly mine on the bitcoin blockchain. Those machines/computers take resources to run, such as electricity and maintenance fees. They require upkeep. These fees are paid through bitcoin. The very bitcoin they are mining. That is where the network transaction fees come from.
Now, what does this have to do with the longer transaction time we are seeing? Well just like anyone running a service, they are going to take the higher paying jobs. As the orders come on the blockchain, miners are going to confirm the transactions that are willing to pay the higher transaction fee. The lower fee you pay, the longer you will wait. The bad news is, you cant always control what kind of fee you pay. Even if you are willing to pay more, you might not have that option on most exchanges or wallets. The good news is some wallets do provide that option. And one of those wallets is the Blockchain Wallet from BlockChain.info
If you are making transactions this Bitcoin season, especially if you are trading regularly, see below how to minimize your transaction times.
Below is the Blockchain wallet. If you don't have one set one up, you can set it up for free at Blockchain.info.
Chances are if you are sending bitcoin to an exchange, the time you wait is going to be longer than if you were to send it to a local wallet. So in this case, lets say you have some bitcoin and want to send it to an exchange for trading.
First, you want to send your bitcoin to your new blockchain wallet. You will make sure Bitcoin is selected on the left pane and then click Send.
Once the form opens you will fill in the address and amount you want to send. At the bottom, you will see a dropdown box for "Transaction Fee". Click it and you have the option of selecting "Priority". This will set your transaction fee higher which will in turn give you higher priority on the blockchain.
There is also a "customize transaction fee link that allows you to set the fee for whatever you are willing to pay. Now that is a pretty cool option because most places tell you what you are going to pay. Here, you get to make a choice. Just be warned. The lower you go the longer it takes.
Well I hope that helps and thanks for reading!
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STOPThank you so much @birdbyte! I tried to buy bitcoin at a local ATM a few days ago when it was at 9K and that effort ended in total failure -- there was a sign on the machine saying that the service was closed because the fees were too high and the chain was too congested.
Please excuse my using this reply to get onto my favorite rant about Steemit. When I see the incredible amount of 'green content' in your post, and realize the effort you put into it (I am a very experienced data analyst and writer), and then see your current payout level at $0, I just want to cry.
I can take you to several posts where people more or less come and say "Good morning my friends and followers. I slep well last night", and they get $10 more in payment.
There are several Youtube channel owners who get paid by Google, repost their videos on Steemit with little 'green content' attached and get much more that $50 (or more than $100) as payment here at Steemit.
This is crazy stuff, as far as I am concerned. Our "get paid for posting your content" system here needs major surgery.
Thank You @lestatisticien! That means a lot and I appreciate your kind words. I am still new to Steemit so hopefully, the payout will change soon. I enjoy adding value to teaching where I can. I agree with you as far as the payout goes. I see some pretty ridiculous posts get really good pay. I don't enjoy cheating the system like that.
You make a really interesting point here, re. adding to the teaching; because I was over in Medium and Reddit last night where all people get are "claps". The quality of what I was reading is rarely met (by me) among Steemit posts, and that's no surprise to me because I come from writing communities where nobody is writing to get paid X$ for as payment for writing piece Y. Just look at all the woinderful music peope are just giving away on Youtube!
It's a really intereting question just whom @Dan and @Ned thought they would attract by saying "come over here and get paid for writing piece Y in Steemit". Maybe they were not thinking about people like you and me! At the same time, I find it damned annoying to see a small circle of people consistently getting $10, $50, $100 payments that are explainable only on the hypothesis that they are loved by certain whales and/or have thousands of followers.