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What will be the definition of confirmation time and data used for
https://blockchain.info/charts ?
I would appreciate confirmation.
Definition of confirmation time in blockchain.info
Answers
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I believe the data presented on blockchain.info's site is collected by the following method:
- a blockchain.info node hears about a new transaction. It is added to the node's mempool, and an entry that includes a timestamp is also recorded into a local database
- when the node hears about a new block, it will check to see which transactions are included. It will then compare the time the transaction was first seen, with the time the block was first seen, and the difference between the two would be a 'time until confirmation'.
This chart reports the median time for transaction confirmation, but note that it excludes any transactions with zero fee.
It is potentially worth noting that some transactions are published with a low time preference, meaning the person initiating the transaction may intentionally include a low fee that will take a while to confirm, and this would drive the 'average confirmation time' up, even though the network is functioning well for it's users.
"It excludes any transactions with zero fee." Is it also true for average confirmation time? So it means that it underestimates the confirmation time in a sense that transactions with zero fee will take longer? – 171124 – 2018-06-05T22:56:48.367
Some nodes will not even relay zero-fee txs, and some miners will not include them in blocks, so I suspect that ignoring them gives a better measure of the 'experience of the average user'. There is also no cost associated with sending zero-fee txs, so it would be easy to spam a huge number of them during times of tx backlog, and effectively raise the 'average confirmation time' a LOT. – chytrik – 2018-06-06T00:49:55.193