What causes client to drop confirms?
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I have 2 transfers waiting for confirms. 1 is incoming for 20 ftc (Thanks Justabit :-[), 1 outgoing (for 2000+ FTC) to btc-e. they both got to 5 confirms (Green clock) fairly quick compared to recent transactions then reset to the question mark. What causes that?
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I believe is when your transaction get’s stuck in an orphan block. It will be confirmed soon. UKMark had the same once :/
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But 5 confirms? :o
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[quote name=“Nutnut” post=“5045” timestamp=“1369170775”]
But 5 confirms? :o
[/quote] I think anywhere between 1 and 5 as the 6th is the most inportant and the one that credits your account. I may be wrong though ;) -
[quote name=“Nutnut” post=“5045” timestamp=“1369170775”]
But 5 confirms? :o
[/quote]Doesn’t mater if it’s 300 confirms. If the chain gets orphaned by a longer chain, your transactions are not confirmed. That’s why they suggest 120 confirmations: After 120, the likelihood of a longer chain overruling it is pretty slim.
Which isn’t to say impossible. Take what happened to another coin which was a fork of Litecoin or Feathercoin (I forget which one, there’s so many at this point): They used the same genesis block, so someone clever just replayed the existing chain from the original coin into the new forked network, and it overruled the existing one because it was longer, AND perfectly valid. Stupidity at it’s finest… and ALL the confirmations to date became unconfirmed. You wanna talk about panic? OMG… This is why checkpoints are important!
Here’s the good news: Your coins are safe. Either the transaction is recorded in the blockchain, or it isn’t. If the transaction goes long enough without making it in, it will eventually be “forgotten” allowing you to spend the coins again. I’ve seen this happen a few times when sending BTC through Blockexplorer.org: After about 48 hours of it being ‘unconfirmed’ I get a mail saying, “One of the transactions you made has been unconfirmed for a while so we went ahead and deleted it.” and my balance is restored.
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[quote name=“Kevlar” post=“5226” timestamp=“1369199747”]
[quote author=Nutnut link=topic=638.msg5045#msg5045 date=1369170775]
But 5 confirms? :o
[/quote]Doesn’t mater if it’s 300 confirms. If the chain gets orphaned by a longer chain, your transactions are not confirmed. That’s why they suggest 120 confirmations: After 120, the likelihood of a longer chain overruling it is pretty slim.
Which isn’t to say impossible. Take what happened to another coin which was a fork of Litecoin or Feathercoin (I forget which one, there’s so many at this point): They used the same genesis block, so someone clever just replayed the existing chain from the original coin into the new forked network, and it overruled the existing one because it was longer, AND perfectly valid. Stupidity at it’s finest… and ALL the confirmations to date became unconfirmed. You wanna talk about panic? OMG… This is why checkpoints are important!
Here’s the good news: Your coins are safe. Either the transaction is recorded in the blockchain, or it isn’t. If the transaction goes long enough without making it in, it will eventually be “forgotten” allowing you to spend the coins again. I’ve seen this happen a few times when sending BTC through Blockexplorer.org: After about 48 hours of it being ‘unconfirmed’ I get a mail saying, “One of the transactions you made has been unconfirmed for a while so we went ahead and deleted it.” and my balance is restored.
[/quote]^^ Couldn’t of explained it any better! 8)
A stressful experience for the uninitiated at the time, but all will be OK…I had 5000 floating around for a couple of days :o
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I always knew that it would be safe and your explanation kinda confirms what I was thinking.
[Note to self: Stop being lazy and fully digest the whitepaper!]
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[quote name=“Kevlar” post=“5226” timestamp=“1369199747”]
[quote author=Nutnut link=topic=638.msg5045#msg5045 date=1369170775]
But 5 confirms? :o
[/quote]Doesn’t mater if it’s 300 confirms. If the chain gets orphaned by a longer chain, your transactions are not confirmed. That’s why they suggest 120 confirmations: After 120, the likelihood of a longer chain overruling it is pretty slim.
Which isn’t to say impossible. Take what happened to another coin which was a fork of Litecoin or Feathercoin (I forget which one, there’s so many at this point): They used the same genesis block, so someone clever just replayed the existing chain from the original coin into the new forked network, and it overruled the existing one because it was longer, AND perfectly valid. Stupidity at it’s finest… and ALL the confirmations to date became unconfirmed. You wanna talk about panic? OMG… This is why checkpoints are important!
Here’s the good news: Your coins are safe. Either the transaction is recorded in the blockchain, or it isn’t. If the transaction goes long enough without making it in, it will eventually be “forgotten” allowing you to spend the coins again. I’ve seen this happen a few times when sending BTC through Blockexplorer.org: After about 48 hours of it being ‘unconfirmed’ I get a mail saying, “One of the transactions you made has been unconfirmed for a while so we went ahead and deleted it.” and my balance is restored.
[/quote]That bit of information should be posted in a tutorial section, its a good read.