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I am wondering if someone could explain why two transactions have different network propagation values... and what does it even mean considering they are both unconfirmed transactions. Do the transactions propagate through the nodes without being confirmed?

See below:

enter image description here https://blockchain.info/tx/aec00216dfad6100638580bdc17a52d62e9c5687d9a981aaa2ece769d1f305c3

enter image description here https://blockchain.info/tx/bda711e375d32b70b9fe65f4e4ceba041c6d2bdcfdaa03c5cfaff02de5445539

A number of my transactions are still unconfirmed after 10 hours of waiting. All transactions included a fee. I am trying to work out what has happened to them and what this whole network propagation thing means.

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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.

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  • Thanks! I wasn't aware that transactions could be ignored by the nodes. Thanks for this, informative!
    – cstrat
    Mar 28, 2013 at 3:50
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    "Might be something regarding some miners dislike for satshoidice." That seems like a reasonable explanation as some miners explicitly filter SatoshiDice transactions: bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=149668.msg1590550#msg1590550.
    – ESRogs
    Mar 28, 2013 at 4:02
  • It appears that blockchain.info has removed this field now...
    – cstrat
    Mar 28, 2013 at 11:50
  • @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
    Mar 28, 2013 at 14:26
  • @Compro01, can you elaborate on the mechanics of "might be something regarding some miners dislike for satoshidice"?
    – Pacerier
    Mar 4, 2014 at 7:11
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I had this problem the other day with satoshidice.com i found a faster solution to get your funds back instantly if needed probbly not the best way though as your waller will show double spends but anyway heres what i did i just downloaded electrum wallet and i used the sweep feature on a newly generated bitcoin address and swept the btc address i had the unconfirmed transactions hope this helps anybody that needs to get there btc back fast

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