Academy › Coins and networks › Lesson 5
Bitcoin confirmations: why your swap is still waiting
Waiting for confirmations is the service protecting itself, and you, from reversed payments.
01What a confirmation is
Each new block that includes or follows your transaction adds one confirmation. Bitcoin produces a block about every ten minutes on average.
02Why services wait
Unconfirmed transactions can still be replaced. Waiting for a few confirmations makes reversal practically impossible.
03The fee effect
Miners pick transactions with higher fees first. A low fee can leave a deposit waiting for hours when the network is busy.
04Checking progress
Paste your transaction ID into a block explorer to see how many confirmations it has.
Key pointBitcoin deposits need several confirmations; a higher network fee gets the first one sooner.