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I sent some bitcoins to an address. The transaction seems to have been executed, and I do have a transaction hash; but when I search for it on http://blockchain.info/ it says "transaction not found"...

where did it go?!

Should I be worried? The transaction was processed at 04/10/2013 20:38 - about 3 hours ago now. Isn't that too long?

I did not add any transaction fee, because there is no option for it.

The transfer was started from bitcoin-central.

update

Since the money finally arrived, I guess i could slightly rewrite the question such as:

How can there be such a (long) latency from the moment a transaction is executed (eg. I get a transaction hash) to the moment the transaction is seen on the system (eg. blockchain.info)?

how can it be that it is not showing (hours later, not seconds later)?

How can I know the hash I got is valid/real?

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  • @StephenGornick How's that a duplicate?
    – Nick ODell
    Apr 11, 2013 at 1:44
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    I can create a transaction offline and get a transaction hash and send that to you out-of-band. That doesn't mean the bitcoin network knows about it. When you withdraw from a hosted (shared) E-Wallet, you are at the mercy of that E-Wallet provider. It isn't Bitcoin's fault. Once that E-Wallet provider finally broadcasts the transaction to peers, those nodes will relay the transaction and within seconds nodes around the world know about it. So, to summarize, until the E-Wallet sends it there's no way for Bitcoin network to know about it.
    – Stephen Gornick
    Apr 13, 2013 at 22:38
  • thanks @StephenGornick ! I thought the transaction hash was the result of a first broadcast. If it's not... then it's practically unuseful, isn't it? I mean let's say the e-wallet provider later decides not to broadcast it. I can't use it to prove anything, can I?
    – Stefano
    Apr 14, 2013 at 12:23
  • PS. This question is very different from the one tagged as a duplicate. The problem statement is: 1) I have a Transaction Hash 2) The transaction hash cannot be found on blockchain.info - It sounds like there are 2 possible answers: A) blockchain.info is not yet up to date B) The transaction was calculated offline and has not been broadcasted yet. Very different from the dup. I'd still like to understand what use/how secure is an offline transaction, unless this is meat for a different question
    – Stefano
    Apr 14, 2013 at 12:28
  • I don't know what else to add. You are correct. If the transaction had been broadcast and also blockchain.info had been up to date, then blockchain.info would have showed your trx. Without knowing if either of those is true, there's nothing more I can add.
    – Stephen Gornick
    Apr 19, 2013 at 21:23

1 Answer 1

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Your account at Bitcoin-Central is a hosted (shared) E-Wallet.

This means that you are not withdrawing your bitcoins, you are sending a request to the E-Wallet provider to withdraw your bitcoins.

If for whatever reason that E-Wallet provider is unable to service that request immediately (for example, their hot wallet is depleted and they need to wait until business hours to get access to the bank vault to be able reload from cold storage) then the site might provide to you confirmation of your withdrawal request but that doesn't mean a Bitcoin transaction was broadcast to the network.

If you have a transaction hash, and that transaction is broadcast, then you should see it on Blockchain.info.

Otherwise, the problem is with the E-Wallet provider.

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    The point was: I did have a transaction hash. But the transaction was not found on blockchain.info! Apparently though it only was extremely slow, and it appeared quite a few hours later... how is that possible?
    – Stefano
    Apr 11, 2013 at 5:59
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    If you got a transaction hash but Blockchain.info doesn't know about it then most likely it wasn't broadcast to peers. Or maybe Blockchain.info was not current (that happens time to time).
    – Stephen Gornick
    Apr 13, 2013 at 22:40

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