If you have ever made payments using Bitcoin, you may have noticed how long it takes for the network to confirm transactions. Sometimes, days can go by between the time you sent the payment and received the confirmation.
Fortunately, there are several ways to speed up this process. The easiest would be to pay a higher transaction fee. This could also work if your transaction expires — just send in the same transaction with a higher fee, and it should go through quicker.
However, paying a higher fee might not always work, especially when the network is congested. In such cases, you can try using transaction accelerators such as BTC Nitro to speed up your confirmations.
These off-chain services accept an additional fee to move your transaction up in the queue. Miners themselves often provide these services to make more money accepting transactions.
Let's take a look at how it works:
How do Bitcoin transactions work?
When you send someone bitcoin, the transaction is broadcast over the network so it can be verified. The verification is done by nodes, which are basically computers that are part of the Bitcoin network.
Even the computer you used to initiate the transaction is a node on the Bitcoin network. Once several nodes mutually agree on the transaction's validity, it is added to the mempool. This is like a waiting area for transactions that are ready to be added to the blockchain.
The process then moves on to a subset of nodes known as miners. These nodes solve complex puzzles to earn the right to pick up transactions from the mempool, bundle them together into blocks and add them to the blockchain. Once this is done, your transaction is confirmed.
Also Read: Here are some of the world's most influential people who have kept faith in crypto
However, due to Bitcoin's popularity, there are thousands of people making transactions on the network at any given time. Therefore, the network often becomes overcrowded. Also, there is a limited amount of miners that further compounds the problem. And finally, the block size for Bitcoin is also very less, allowing for a maximum of 2,200 transaction per block.
All these factors put together result in some transaction lying in the mempool for days before being confirmed. Things also get worse if traffic begins to rise at the same time.
How long do you wait for confirmation?
It's hard to put a finger on the exact time, as there is no telling how busy the Bitcoin network is at any given moment. There have been cases when people have had to wait for 3-4 days for their transaction to be confirmed. Conversely, there have been times when transactions are confirmed within minutes; it really depends on network congestion.
How do Bitcoin accelerators work?
Accelerators such as BTC Nitro work by reminding the miners about your transaction. They rebroadcast your transaction to several Bitcoin nodes and re-queue them to speed up the confirmation process. The rebroadcasting happens through public blockchain nodes as well as accelerator-owned nodes.
The BTC Nitro accelerator offers two kinds of services: standard and premium. The standard service is free. Just enter your transaction ID, and the platform will rebroadcast it through public blockchain nodes and Nitro's private nodes.
Also Read: Jack Dorsey, Jay Z launch Bitcoin Academy to educate people about cryptocurrency
The premium service cuts down this process further and automatically asks its network miners to confirm the transaction. This process is so quick that you can expect your transaction to be confirmed in as little as one hour. However, an additional $25 is charged by BTC Nitro to help you jump the queue.
Are there any other accelerators?
BTC Nitro is not the only transaction accelerator, there are several other options available too. These include BTC.com, Via BTC, BTC TX Accelerator, 360 BTC Accelerator, Bitcoin Afterburner, and so on.
Each of these accelerators has their own benefits and features. For instance, BTC.com confirms 75 percent of transactions within 1 hour, and 98 percent of them within 4 hours, VIA BTC offers 100 free accelerations per hour, and Afterburner provides quick confirmations for an affordable price of $5.99 per transaction.
