money ยท post 02 of 7 in this channel
Waiting on confirmations is most of a WTN market deposit
The word gets used constantly and explained almost never. It is a simple idea and the simplicity is genuinely reassuring.
the three wethenorth market addresses
hn2paw7zfvndw3dovycegeqmvvnf4pl67b3g2p7pohjlzavloosh73id.onionhn2paw7zrgujyhnt6mgxlt2q6uhgbke4itpqitxhyfbumq3wtnckbuyd.onionhn2paw7zadwkcra3qzv5e4q547i7e5lvxm62cfxqftuqdu7moiu2ceyd.onionprinted the way they were handed over. no labels, no numbering, nothing here says which one to try first. this feed never opens them, so it has no status light, no percentage and no date of checking to give you.
what a confirmation is
When your transaction gets included in a block, that is one confirmation. Every block built on top of that one adds another.
So confirmations are not a checking process happening somewhere. They are a count of how much work has been piled on top of your transaction since it landed.
More on top means harder to undo. That is the entire concept.
why anyone waits for several
A transaction with one confirmation is settled in a way that could, in unusual circumstances, be reversed. With several, that becomes impractical rather than merely difficult.
A market crediting a balance is handing you spendable value. It waits until reversing the incoming transaction would cost more than it is worth.
That is not the market being slow or cautious about you specifically. It is the same threshold for everyone.
why the wait varies so much
Blocks arrive at intervals that are averages rather than schedules. Sometimes several come quickly, sometimes there is a long gap. Nobody controls that.
Different coins have very different block times, so the same number of confirmations means very different amounts of clock time depending on what you sent.
And a busy network means your transaction may wait to be included at all, which happens before the first confirmation and looks identical to nothing happening.
the fee you attached
The fee is what buys your transaction a place in a block when there is competition for space. Too low and it waits, sometimes for a long time.
This is decided when you send and cannot usually be changed afterwards, although some wallets offer ways to nudge it.
The post on where the fees go covers the other fees you will meet, which are a different thing entirely.
watching does not help
Refreshing the deposit page does not add confirmations. Neither does refreshing a block explorer, although that at least tells you where you are.
People sit and refresh anyway. It is worth naming what that is: it is anxiety management, not progress, and it tends to end with somebody sending a second transaction they did not need to send.
Set it down and come back later. Nothing about the process needs you present.
what to do while you wait
Nothing, ideally. If you want to check something real, look up your transaction on a block explorer and see whether it has been included yet.
That distinguishes the two states that feel identical from inside the market: not yet in a block, and in a block but waiting for more on top. Those need different amounts of patience.
It is also the only real information available to you during this stage. Everything else is guessing, and guessing while watching a balance that has not moved is how second transactions get sent.
replies
a reader askedHow many confirmations does the market need?
the answerIt varies by coin and by market policy, and this feed does not open the market, so it will not print a number that people would then treat as measured.
a reader askedMy transaction has confirmations but my balance is unchanged. Why?
the answerEither it needs more than it has, or the crediting runs on a cycle rather than instantly. The post on the deposit that has not landed works through the rest.
a reader askedCan I pay extra to get more confirmations faster?
the answerNo. A fee buys inclusion in a block, not the speed at which later blocks arrive. Once you are in, everyone waits at the same rate.
what this post is not Not a technical explanation of consensus. It goes as far as the word needs to be understood to stop being frightening, and no further.