Block Chain Clarification???

[weesie]

Hi,

I am a bit confused on just how or even why we need a blockchain

type of service with bitcoin.

It is my understanding that in using bitcoin to begin with, the "addresses,"

just a bunch of numbers and letters, always changing.

a person sends bitcoin to are anonymous to begin with.

Saying there is a need for "blockchain" says they can indeed see

just what type of business a person is sending to.

So, which is it?

 

[bowlingbob]

Hi,

I am a bit confused on just how or even why we need a blockchain

type of service with bitcoin.

It is my understanding that in using bitcoin to begin with, the "addresses,"

just a bunch of numbers and letters, always changing.

a person sends bitcoin to are anonymous to begin with.

Saying there is a need for "blockchain" says they can indeed see

just what type of business a person is sending to.

So, which is it?

I'm not really sure what you are getting at. But the blockchain plays a major role in Bitcoin. It identifies the transactions and allows real time ledger of the peer to peer transactions.

Anyways since we are on the subject of the blockchain. I want to express my extreme frustration of late regarding the blockchain. I've been around and gambling in bitcoin since 2011. What I've seen lately has really changed my mind going forward playing online with bitcoins. I may just end up quit playing.

In the past the blockchain used to be super fast in confirming transactions for a really low fee of a few pennies. It has slowly creeped up in 2016 where it was around 10c but still lightning fast confirmations. Now, the miners are exercising their power by requiring a very large fee to confirm your transaction within the next few blocks. Usually around $1-2. Anything less and you can and will wait several hours for your transaction to confirm on the blockchain. I do many deposits of $20-25 and sending a couple dollars in miner fee just to ensure my transaction gets confirmed so that I can cashout if I win is ridiculous. This is going to be one of the failures in Bitcoin in general. High fees and long waits are the norm now.

Now lets get to Coinbase regarding transactions:

Just recently, Coinbase is starting to charge users a transaction fee now to send bitcoin. It has always been free in the past. I can understand why they are doing it now with the rapid increase in miner fees but it gets worse than that.

I've bought bitcoin on Coinbase a couple times this week. Bitcoin shows up I pay the fee to send to another wallet and then the headache starts. The first time it took 8 hours to finally broadcast on the bitcoin network. Then this morning I tried again thinking it was just a glitch and going on 3+ hours and still nothing has been broadcast. Contact support you say? LOL the support at Coinbase is the worst I've ever encountered with any business in my life. You can email them several times as I have in the past regarding serious issues (I'll get to that in moment) and you will receive either a bot reply or NO reply at all.

Coinbase in the past has on two occasions double and triple charged a bitcoin buy I've made. And in both instances it didnt get recharged until weeks later. Had I not had the money in the account to cover I would have been put in the negative.

I have bought what was instant bitcoins via debit in the past and the bitcoins never showed up until 2 weeks later as they sat in a "pending" state.

I have sold bitcoins via bank transfer. While most times it goes smooth, on a few occasions it has taken over a week to get the money even though they promised delivery by a certain day.

And if you do a web search all the issues I've mentioned above have happened to many people in the past and will continue to happen because Coinbase is a badly run company.


Good luck to those of you that continue to use Coinbase. They are a very unprofessional company and if you ever run into any issues and you will there good luck getting a hold of someone in support. They provide no telephone support and email support will likely get you nowhere.

/End Rant. Closing my coinbase account today as soon as this transaction I sent hours ago finally reaches its destination. I've had enough with this shit company.

 

[weesie]

Thank you for your input.

My point is, I was under the impression that using bitcoin

was totally anonymous. From sender "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"

to receiver "yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy"

no names or companies involved.

Now I have read stories where coinbase can and will block your

account if you are sending to a gambling site.

If it is truly anonymous, as previously stated, how do they know

it was sent to a gambling site?

As for your other comments, I have had a couple delayed transaction as

well. One took about 12 hours.

Mainly to Intertops and they were very small deposits, and yes the

fee was higher this last time.

 

[secret2]

I have the BitPay Debit card and this is connected to Coinbase. All went well the first time. Fine. The withdrawal to BitPay from Coinbase went smoothly (this was about a month ago). Low fees from BitPay card and Coinbase. And quick.

Now, as stated by bowlingbob, the waiting time is unreal. I went to deposit to Coinbase but the 'expected' time frame was 10 days, so I backed out from depositing.

I have looked at other Bitcoin wallets and the fees are too high for this low-roller. So, the walls have nearly met for me.

 

[Diane]

Ty for the info.

Do you have another option besides coinbase that you would recommend?

Diane

I'm not really sure what you are getting at. But the blockchain plays a major role in Bitcoin. It identifies the transactions and allows real time ledger of the peer to peer transactions.

Anyways since we are on the subject of the blockchain. I want to express my extreme frustration of late regarding the blockchain. I've been around and gambling in bitcoin since 2011. What I've seen lately has really changed my mind going forward playing online with bitcoins. I may just end up quit playing.

In the past the blockchain used to be super fast in confirming transactions for a really low fee of a few pennies. It has slowly creeped up in 2016 where it was around 10c but still lightning fast confirmations. Now, the miners are exercising their power by requiring a very large fee to confirm your transaction within the next few blocks. Usually around $1-2. Anything less and you can and will wait several hours for your transaction to confirm on the blockchain. I do many deposits of $20-25 and sending a couple dollars in miner fee just to ensure my transaction gets confirmed so that I can cashout if I win is ridiculous. This is going to be one of the failures in Bitcoin in general. High fees and long waits are the norm now.

Now lets get to Coinbase regarding transactions:

Just recently, Coinbase is starting to charge users a transaction fee now to send bitcoin. It has always been free in the past. I can understand why they are doing it now with the rapid increase in miner fees but it gets worse than that.

I've bought bitcoin on Coinbase a couple times this week. Bitcoin shows up I pay the fee to send to another wallet and then the headache starts. The first time it took 8 hours to finally broadcast on the bitcoin network. Then this morning I tried again thinking it was just a glitch and going on 3+ hours and still nothing has been broadcast. Contact support you say? LOL the support at Coinbase is the worst I've ever encountered with any business in my life. You can email them several times as I have in the past regarding serious issues (I'll get to that in moment) and you will receive either a bot reply or NO reply at all.

Coinbase in the past has on two occasions double and triple charged a bitcoin buy I've made. And in both instances it didnt get recharged until weeks later. Had I not had the money in the account to cover I would have been put in the negative.

I have bought what was instant bitcoins via debit in the past and the bitcoins never showed up until 2 weeks later as they sat in a "pending" state.

I have sold bitcoins via bank transfer. While most times it goes smooth, on a few occasions it has taken over a week to get the money even though they promised delivery by a certain day.

And if you do a web search all the issues I've mentioned above have happened to many people in the past and will continue to happen because Coinbase is a badly run company.


Good luck to those of you that continue to use Coinbase. They are a very unprofessional company and if you ever run into any issues and you will there good luck getting a hold of someone in support. They provide no telephone support and email support will likely get you nowhere.

/End Rant. Closing my coinbase account today as soon as this transaction I sent hours ago finally reaches its destination. I've had enough with this shit company.

 

[bowlingbob]

Ty for the info.

Do you have another option besides coinbase that you would recommend?

Diane

Not really, I used to use LibertyX alot to buy bitcoins because when they first came out they had 0-1% fees and many stores in my metro area sold them. It still is a great alternative to buy bitcoins with Cash if you can find a store near you and the fee isnt to bad. Now the one store I was using charges 8%.

You can try localbitcoins but many sellers there have their prices marked up 15-20% over price of bitcoin.

Like I said Coinbase is a poorly run company with many issues. When its all working fine its ok which it had been for the past few months but now that they introduced the fees to send bitcoin so far I have waited 8 hours and today was 4 hours for it to hit the network. Like today I emailed them and got no response. Thats typical with them.

Sadly the best option was Circle and thats gone.

Eventually all these issues surrounding bitcoin will be the death of it. High fees and long waits to confirm transactions.

 

[shewoff]

weesie, I think that Blockchain use in connection with Coinbase is a matter of privacy. As I'am sure you have read here on CM there has been some thread's about the power's that be using any transaction's from people's Coinbase acct. to show tax's not being paid?

So if you use 1 to get your payout and then direct your money to your Coinbase acct. the gaming transaction does not show up on your Coinbase acct. So the gaming tax is not apparent.

I also have had some slow pay's at BTC wallet's. But if you look at the way the BTC is going up and down dramatically lately. That is more than like the reason for slow down's.And possibly the time of day may play a role also?

When we join BTC makes a point of making clear that it is NOT a perfected system yet.So as far as US player's and the option's left open to us for payout's. It is still a far cry from Wire Transfer's and Check's.IMO BTC is the lesser of 2 evil's. Peace Out! Out Of The Mist! shewoff

 

[cj1990]

Hi Diane,

I have been using

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with less then 15 minute waits for last couple of weeks. They also have much less of a verification process when compared to Coinbase. You can do an instant $150 purchase and then a simple verification that will increase your purchase power to $7500. That is the upside. The down would be its a flat $10 fee every time I want to move $100 plus. (not sure on fees for bitcoin purchases for less then that) I wrote about them and what to expect here: https://www.casinomeister.com/forums/threads/77879/

So the 6 hours I'm waiting for coinmamma to take my order out of pending isnt normal?

 

[cpdnd31]

Bitcoin has changes many times over the year. it went from no one really using it in the USA. to everyone wanting so they can play online. Now coinbase is a rats ass if you ask me. They may be lower fees but you get what you pay for. The quickest I found is peer to peer transfers. are the fees higher yes but its instant. its a cyber world with bitcoin so the main problem is you need to use a company or website that protects you from getting ripped off. The site in my signiture is new on the market. Are the fees higher yes. But its id verification and after first transaction everything will be instant. I have been watching other streamers use and talked to some who have used and they said hey if you need bitcoin in a hurry this is the place.

More bitcoin places will be popping up im sure of it. But just think of it as web wallets. When one would open we would all flock to it until the overload got to big and or they shut down then we would move on like a heard of grazing cattle to the next site.

peer to peer lending will probably be the best bet in my eyes - that means i have x bitcoins and i need to sell them to someone else. With more people using it I think peer to peer fees will start going down and making it more comfortable for all.

 

[cpdnd31]

here is another one I use

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it can be confusingg because there are so many options and have to read all of what seller wants - and double check fees but if it helps here ya go.

 

[shewoff]

Your analysis is dead on cpdnd31,And it is a fact that BTC will only continue to create and subsidize new wallet's as the growth of peer to peer continue's. It is a fact that if I use my blockchain acct. to transfer to my Coinbase acct. that in itself is peer to peer.

I went to your link's cpdnd31 and it is a fair website for selling and buying BTC. I'am not sure if it's fee's are gonna get any cheaper any time soon thou? After all they are out to generate money or bitcoins. And as long as the current fee's are justified they will be in place. I do agree that they will and must go down to make the business profitable.

I see so many wallets out there that are BTC oriented and dependent on the rise and fall of BTC daily. I myself hold about $21,000.00 worth of bitcoins daily and it has been very good lately I have made well over my initial $5,000.00 buy. And the next time it goes over $1,200.00 I will sell it all.

I only hail BTC for it's ability for me to realize my winning's more rapidly that other option's. As a business man I see the ability to make money by selling and buying bitcoin's. But it will cost you money if you can't wait for the times when there is money to be made. As in any investment this is standard fair.

For we US player's I fear that there will never be the option's for us that the player's in the UK and EU have for payout's. Instant gratification is the key to a healthy gaming climate. Unfortunately the US is more concerned with telling us what is wrong with online gaming than helping us to realize the financial benefit's for all.Including the IRS and gaming tax's. Peace Out! Out Of The Mist! shewoff

 

[weesie]

I guess I am just frustrated with the whole thing.

Fees coming and going, good casinos going bad.

I am almost to the point of quitting totally.

 

[Deanna]

Your analysis is dead on cpdnd31,And it is a fact that BTC will only continue to create and subsidize new wallet's as the growth of peer to peer continue's. It is a fact that if I use my blockchain acct. to transfer to my Coinbase acct. that in itself is peer to peer.

I went to your link's cpdnd31 and it is a fair website for selling and buying BTC. I'am not sure if it's fee's are gonna get any cheaper any time soon thou? After all they are out to generate money or bitcoins. And as long as the current fee's are justified they will be in place. I do agree that they will and must go down to make the business profitable.

I see so many wallets out there that are BTC oriented and dependent on the rise and fall of BTC daily. I myself hold about $21,000.00 worth of bitcoins daily and it has been very good lately I have made well over my initial $5,000.00 buy. And the next time it goes over $1,200.00 I will sell it all.

I only hail BTC for it's ability for me to realize my winning's more rapidly that other option's. As a business man I see the ability to make money by selling and buying bitcoin's. But it will cost you money if you can't wait for the times when there is money to be made. As in any investment this is standard fair.

For we US player's I fear that there will never be the option's for us that the player's in the UK and EU have for payout's. Instant gratification is the key to a healthy gaming climate. Unfortunately the US is more concerned with telling us what is wrong with online gaming than helping us to realize the financial benefit's for all.Including the IRS and gaming tax's. Peace Out! Out Of The Mist! shewoff

Um...can I send you my bitcoin "receive" address? LOL

 

[cj1990]

Ive used it over a dozen times and it has never taken longer then a couple hours, and that was prior to finding out that the delay between your wallet and the balance being applied could be longer then an hour in some cases. This was almost always because the default fee the wallet was providing for the mining verification was so low. So before you send your payment off to the Casino, click on "advanced options" and manually change your fee for the miners by adding another .25 to .50 cents or so and your transaction will almost always be instant!

Keep in mind that deposit amounts lower then $100 may take much longer. Ive only made purchases of Bitcoin above $100. The lower the amount purchased, the lower the mining fee, the lower the priority.

Hope this helps.

Oh, and If you didnt purchase with credit/debit card, and it was not during normal biz hours - then yes that is normal. Bank drafts etc take longer on first approval.

Thanks for the reply,

so I actually ended up getting my bitcoin 7 hours after I placed my order.

I got an email from their payment provider telling me they were processing my payment, after the 3rd hour I opened a support ticket and about 5 hours later I got a response from them saying , your BTC has been delivered sorry for the delay. No explanation other than below:

"
Hello ,

Thank you for your update!
We are sorry for the delay - hope your next experience is a better one.

"

In regards to the miners fee I usually send $0.40-$0.50 per transaction and it works extremely well.


I pay for several of my web hosting bills in bitcoin so it was moderately urgent, which is why I ended up choosing coinmama since I'm in the middle of a dispute with CB.
I purchased the minimum which is like $60.00 I think, with the $10.00 fee coinmama applies it was like $70.00 total.


Adjusting your fees is probably the best thing to do in cases where you want the payment to confirm faster. Keep in mind that it only works if your Bitcoin is in your Wallet already and is already confirmed.

 

[weesie]

T


"

In regards to the miners fee I usually send $0.40-$0.50 per transaction and it works extremely well.


I pay for several of my web hosting bills in bitcoin so it was moderately urgent, which is why I ended up choosing coinmama since I'm in the middle of a dispute with CB.
I purchased the minimum which is like $60.00 I think, with the $10.00 fee coinmama applies it was like $70.00 total.


Adjusting your fees is probably the best thing to do in cases where you want the payment to confirm faster. Keep in mind that it only works if your Bitcoin is in your Wallet already and is already confirmed.

They get enough in fees, sending extra sounds like robbery to me. No way I would pay an extra $10 for $60.

So send a little extra and we'll push your purchase through?? Talk about a rip-off! What's to stop them from just holding

your purchase on purpose..... milk you for more fees??

What a crock!

 

[cj1990]

They get enough in fees, sending extra sounds like robbery to me. No way I would pay an extra $10 for $60.

So send a little extra and we'll push your purchase through?? Talk about a rip-off! What's to stop them from just holding

your purchase on purpose..... milk you for more fees??

What a crock!

So coinmama charges a 10.00 fee for purchasing BTC but to compare,
Virwox for example, I deposit 40 via paypal. I might get 30 USD in BTC if I am lucky.

Xcoins, $40.00 costs


Security deposit amount $40.00
Lender's fee (29%) $11.60
Loan origination fee (7.5%) $3.00
PayPal processing fee (2.9% + $0.30) $1.94
Total deposit + fees $56.54


So, coinmama is the closest contender so far to coinbase that I have found.

 

[bowlingbob]

And again today, the mempool is full on the blockchain. over 50,000 transactions waiting in the queue to be confirmed. Even a slightly higher fee isnt' going to help.

I'm not even going to bother gambling in bitcoin today. I was until I looked at the pending queue. If I wanted to send to Casino Extreme I'd have to include a several dollar fee just to try get it confirmed faster and even thats no guarantee so I could get the funds to play with.

What a headache this has become.

 

[weesie]

And again today, the mempool is full on the blockchain. over 50,000 transactions waiting in the queue to be confirmed. Even a slightly higher fee isnt' going to help.

I'm not even going to bother gambling in bitcoin today. I was until I looked at the pending queue. If I wanted to send to Casino Extreme I'd have to include a several dollar fee just to try get it confirmed faster and even thats no guarantee so I could get the funds to play with.

What a headache this has become.

How do you see the "pending queue"?

I am sorry but to me it sounds like we would all be a bit richer

by just becoming a "miner". Don't know that that is possible but just saying....

looks like a rip off to me.

 

[cj1990]

And again today, the mempool is full on the blockchain. over 50,000 transactions waiting in the queue to be confirmed. Even a slightly higher fee isnt' going to help.

I'm not even going to bother gambling in bitcoin today. I was until I looked at the pending queue. If I wanted to send to Casino Extreme I'd have to include a several dollar fee just to try get it confirmed faster and even thats no guarantee so I could get the funds to play with.

What a headache this has become.

Lol, I got a payout this morning at like 9 AM, not a single confirmation and they sent it with $0.24 fee lol. I've been playing off the unconfirmed transaction , can't play btc places but other RTGS accept unconfirmed. Works for me.

 

[weesie]

Lol, I got a payout this morning at like 9 AM, not a single confirmation and they sent it with $0.24 fee lol. I've been playing off the unconfirmed transaction , can't play btc places but other RTGS accept unconfirmed. Works for me.

I am not concerned with the payout part right now.

Just the depositing part.

One person I know got $500 from xcoins and had to pay $675.

No way in hell!

 

[cj1990]

I am not concerned with the payout part right now.

Just the depositing part.

One person I know got $500 from xcoins and had to pay $675.

No way in hell!

XCoins can be super expensive.

I use a prepaid AMEX card for my PayPal , and Virwox does not take AMEX.

When I have no choice I use xCoins.

I think I have stated it before, when I gamble I don't buy bitcoin from C oin B ase , I usually by them from some place else and Virwox has gotten most of my business over the past year.

 

[cheetahwind]

If your already using a prepaid card like Serve, Bluebird, Green Dot, etc, etc.

Have you thought about doing a person to person transfer via somewhere like Local Bit Coins or Paxful. Right now the mark up is about 10 to 12% of these, versus the 20% that I'm seeing on xCoins.

If you have a bit more patience and can drive somewhere. You can always make a deposit into someones bank account as well and save even more on the upcharge.

Normally the release is instant on both of the above options once they verify the transfer or deposit.

Just a few things to think about.

 

[bowlingbob]

Well I talked about quitting online, at least being done with Coinbase and their nonsense. So I went to my nearest LibertyX bitcoin store paid $100 cash paid the 3.5% fee. Gambled all night last night and cashed out 1.25BTC then sold them for cash deposit on localbitcoins. Theres ways to get around being reliant on Coinbase.

BTW, today the blockchain was super fast with confirmations. The days its slow or sluggish I just won't gamble. I like being able to cash out if the casino goes and not being held hostage waiting for miners to get my confirmations and usually ends up in me gambling it all back.