Please explain network propagation with unconfirmed transactions (blockchain.info)

Network propagation is the number of nodes (computers running a bitcoin client) that have heard about your transaction.

Confirmations is how many blocks have included your transaction and how many blocks have linked onto that block. 1 confirmation means your transaction was included in a block, 2 confirmations means that another block linked onto that first one, and so on.

Until a transaction has been included in a block, it isn't considered to have really happened, regardless of how many nodes have heard about it.

Propagation needs to happen before a confirmation can occur, as a mining node needs to be aware of the transaction to include it in a block.

As of this moment, both of your transactions you linked are now showing as having 1 confirmation after being included in block 228337.

As for why it took so long to get a confirmation (468 minutes for the first one), no real idea. Might be something regarding some miners dislike for satshoidice. For example, the Eligius pool is configured to exclude any Satoshidice transactions from their blocks, as they view them as spam.

Compro01

Posted 2013-03-28T03:24:06.887

Reputation: 957

Thanks! I wasn't aware that transactions could be ignored by the nodes. Thanks for this, informative! – cstrat – 2013-03-28T03:50:26.110

"Might be something regarding some miners dislike for satshoidice."

That seems like a reasonable explanation as some miners explicitly filter SatoshiDice transactions: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=149668.msg1590550#msg1590550.

– ESRogs – 2013-03-28T04:02:44.660

It appears that blockchain.info has removed this field now... – cstrat – 2013-03-28T11:50:12.760

@strat - Nodes aren't ignoring the transactions. The vast majority of nodes aren't mining nodes, just people who use bitcoins and run a client. They just relay the transactions to any nodes they're connected to. Mining nodes can pick and choose what transactions they include in their mining attempts based on whatever criteria they choose, be it transaction fees, or in this case, probable origin. – Compro01 – 2013-03-28T14:26:52.423

@Compro01, can you elaborate on the mechanics of "might be something regarding some miners dislike for satoshidice"? – Pacerier – 2014-03-04T07:11:59.140

@Pacerier - exactly as I said. Some pools, such as Eligius, explicitly refuse to include Satoshidice in their blocks. I edited in the info from my comment. – Compro01 – 2014-03-04T14:30:45.153

@Compro01, How does one go about refusing certain transactions like this? – Pacerier – 2014-03-04T16:04:34.203

@Pacerier - Look at the transaction size, destination address, etc. Here's an example. Elligus I believe uses a more extensive transaction blacklist with more criteria that blocks more "unwanted" transactions

– Compro01 – 2014-03-04T16:16:35.403

Please explain network propagation with unconfirmed transactions (blockchain.info)

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