Bitcoin Transactions Aren’t as Anonymous as Everyone Hoped

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If you have sent a bitcoin payment in the last couple of weeks, you may have noticed that your transactions are taking much longer than expected to confirm. Since, like the Bitcoin network, we are currently working through a backlog, we want to thank you for your patience.

With the high volume of questions we're getting about delayed payments, we decided it would be best to write a short explanation about what's happening with many bitcoin transactions right now. Transactions on the Bitcoin network itself aren't controlled or confirmed by BitPay, but by the bitcoin miners which group transactions into "blocks" and add those blocks to the Bitcoin "blockchain" — the shared anonymous bitcoin transaction timed out record of all transactions.

When a transaction has been added to a block six blocks ago, it's considered a done deal. Currently, bitcoin network traffic is unusually high due to increasing demand for transactions per block. Block sizes are limited, so this means that transactions which exceed the capacity for a block get stuck in a queue for confirmation by bitcoin miners.

This anonymous bitcoin transaction timed out of unconfirmed transactions is called the bitcoin mempool. For context on what's happening now, here is a look at the current bitcoin mempool anonymous bitcoin transaction timed out. A lot of people are interested in using bitcoin for transactions. The bad news is that this network traffic may anonymous bitcoin transaction timed out delays of a few hours to a few days anonymous bitcoin transaction timed out some users and a wait time of weeks for a small number of users.

If your bitcoin transaction to a BitPay merchant has not confirmed yet, you will need to wait for it to be confirmed by bitcoin miners. Since BitPay does not control confirmation times, there is unfortunately nothing we can do to speed up the process once your transaction has already been broadcast to the network.

You can check your transaction's confirmation status and other payment anonymous bitcoin transaction timed out on any blockchain explorer like BitPay's block explorer Insight. Look up your transaction using your transaction ID or the sending or receiving bitcoin addresses, which can all be found in your bitcoin wallet that sent the payment.

For your transaction to be considered fully confirmed by most BitPay merchants, your transaction will need to have six confirmations. Note that until your payment has six confirmations on the bitcoin blockchain, the recipient will not have access to the funds and will not be able to refund your transaction.

Anonymous bitcoin transaction timed out some BitPay merchants may choose to fulfill orders on payments with fewer block confirmations, you will need at least one block confirmation before your order can be considered complete. If your transaction confirms and the merchant does not fulfill your order, you don't need to reach out to BitPay.

Because block sizes are limited, it's important for bitcoin miners to know which transactions they should include in blocks first. Miners use prices to figure this out. When you broadcast a transaction, your total amount sent usually includes a "miner fee" which goes to pay miners. If you want your transaction to leave the bitcoin mempool and be added to a block quickly, it's important that you include a sufficient miner fee.

This is why we strongly suggest using the BitPay wallet or another true bitcoin anonymous bitcoin transaction timed out that can dynamically calculate the miner fee needed for timely block confirmations. For reference, the website bitcoinfees. Transactions are being added to the bitcoin mempool's full queue constantly. Some may have been sent with higher miner fees than the one sent with your payment. This means that with current network traffic, miners may deprioritize your unconfirmed transaction anonymous bitcoin transaction timed out if it was sent with an appropriate fee at the time.

Your transaction will likely confirm, but if the Bitcoin network does not confirm it, it be spendable again in your wallet.

Funds are spendable again in the BitPay wallet after transactions fail to confirm for up to 72 hours, but other wallets may behave differently. If you are not using the BitPay wallet, you should contact your wallet provider for help if your unconfirmed funds do not show up as spendable again after a few days. While BitPay does not control confirmation times on the Bitcoin network, we care about the payment frustrations BitPay merchants and purchasers are experiencing right now.

For purchasers, our BitPay wallet team has been working on updates to the BitPay wallet for our next release which will help to mitigate the effects of these delays on the bitcoin network when they occur.

For bitcoin users and businesses alike, we're also continuing to explore options for faster, simpler, and more affordable bitcoin payments. We'll continue to post here on the BitPay blog as we make progress. If this article didn't answer your question, check out our payment guide or our new video walkthrough for more info on how to make a successful bitcoin payment. We have received your emails.

How Bitcoin Transactions Get Confirmed or Delayed Transactions on the Bitcoin network anonymous bitcoin transaction timed out aren't controlled or confirmed by BitPay, but by the bitcoin miners which group transactions into "blocks" and add those blocks to the Bitcoin "blockchain" — the shared historical record of all transactions. What To Do If You Have an Unconfirmed Transaction If your bitcoin transaction to a BitPay merchant has not confirmed yet, you will need to wait for it to be confirmed by bitcoin miners.

How To Avoid Delayed Transactions Because block sizes are limited, it's important for bitcoin miners to know which transactions they should include in blocks first.

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An increasing number of online merchants now offer the ability to pay using the cryptocurrency Bitcoin. One of the great promises of this technology is anonymity: This is handy for some, but the anonymity is by no means perfect. Security experts call it pseudonymous privacy, like writing books under a nom de plume.

You can preserve your privacy as long as the pseudonym is not linked to you. But as soon as somebody makes the link to one of your anonymous books, the ruse is revealed. Your entire writing history under your pseudonym becomes public. Similarly, as soon as your personal details are linked to your Bitcoin address, your purchase history is revealed too. That raises an important question for people hoping to use Bitcoin to make anonymous purchases: Today we get an answer thanks to the work of Steven Goldfeder at Princeton University and a number of pals.

These guys say the way information leaks during ordinary purchases makes it straightforward to link individuals with the Bitcoin transactions they make, even when purchasers use additional privacy protections, such as CoinJoin.

The main culprits are Web trackers and cookies—small pieces of code deliberately embedded into websites that send information to third parties about the way people use the site. Common Web trackers send information to Google, Facebook, and others to track page usage, purchase amounts, browsing habits, and so on.

Some trackers even send personally identifiable information such as your name, address, and e-mail. The question that Goldfeder and co investigate is how easy it is to use this information to connect people to their Bitcoin transactions. The team began by listing major merchants that allow Bitcoin transactions. They came up with of them, including Microsoft, NewEgg, and Overstock. They then studied how Web trackers leak information from each of these sites during the purchase process.

Most of this information leakage is intentional for the purposes of advertising and analytics. But the researchers also say some extra information is also sent. But even when the exact transaction is kept hidden, it is still possible to make the link when the leak includes the amount and time of the purchase.

In that case, the eavesdropper needs to convert the purchase amount into Bitcoins using the exchange rate at the time and then search the blockchain for a transaction of that amount at that moment. This reveals the Bitcoin address of the user. Any other purchases made using that address are then trivial to track down. There are a couple of additional factors that make this process trickier.

The Web tracker might leak the cost of the product but not include shipping, so the total Bitcoin purchase may not be clear. There may also be a gap between the time the user viewed the page the information leaked from—the checkout cart, for example—and the time when the purchase was actually made.

Bitcoin purchases are time-stamped, so it becomes harder to track them down if the time is not known accurately. The purchase amount is usually given in a local currency such as dollars or pounds and then converted into Bitcoin at the instant of purchase. Because of the large variability in Bitcoin exchange rates, it can be hard to work out the exact Bitcoin value if the purchase time is not known accurately.

All these factors make it harder to link individuals to their Bitcoin transactions, but it is by no means impossible. There are ways to further hide Bitcoin transactions. This mixes their bitcoins, making it harder to identify them. But Goldfeder and co point out that if an individual uses CoinJoin to make several purchases in this way, it is straightforward to link them back: These are useful but can sometimes miss trackers and at other times prevent purchases entirely.

But it will also be music to the ears of law enforcement agencies hoping to track nefarious activities. When the Cookie Meets the Blockchain: Privacy Risks of Web Payments via Cryptocurrencies. Catch up with our coverage of the event. A new prototype gets at how—and why—manufacturers and product designers might benefit from a blockchain. Six issues of our award winning print magazine, unlimited online access plus The Download with the top tech stories delivered daily to your inbox.

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And that can make it straightforward to link individuals with their Bitcoin purchases, say cybersecurity researchers. An unbelievably detailed 3-D model of Paris is getting the Eiffel Tower ready for a revamp. This visualization shows just how crazy and explosive the ICO market has become. How can we be sure AI will behave? Perhaps by watching it argue with itself. Computer scientists have found the longest straight line you could sail without hitting land.

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