<p>According to the <a href="https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Confirmation" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Bitcoin wiki</a> who refers to this <a href="https://bitcoil.co.il/Doublespend.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Analysis of hashrate-based double-spending</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<ul>
<li><p>No amount of confirmations will reduce the success rate to 0.</p>
</li>
<li><p>If the attacker controls more hashrate than the honest network, no
amount of confirmations will reduce the success rate below 100%.</p>
</li>
<li><p>There is nothing special about the default, often-cited figure of 6
confirmations. It was chosen based on the assumption that an attacker
is unlikely to amass more than 10% of the hashrate, and that a
negligible risk of less than 0.1% is acceptable. Both these figures
are arbitrary, however; 6 confirmations are overkill for casual
attackers, and at the same time powerless against more dedicated
attackers with much more than 10% hashrate.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/nYkbo.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/nYkbo.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>So as you stated, it is nothing more than a trade-off.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-04-19T06:56:04.517Z
2018-04-19T06:56:04.517Z
2020-06-16T11:10:03.350Z
sr_gi
<p>On GDAX website, they claim that 3 confirmations is needed to finalize your tx in. I assume they've done thorough research on this and might've come up with some logic to protect themselves from temporary branches.</p>

<p>In a few other posts, I often found people say at least 6 is needed. I mean obviously it's trade-off between efficiency and robustness, but just wondering what are some of the possible ways to push this number to the lower end while keeping the system as robust as possible.</p>

<transactions><confirmations><zero-confirmation><gdax>
ways to improve bitcoin tx finalization time
Will Gu
# ways to improve bitcoin tx finalization time

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-04-18)

On GDAX website, they claim that 3 confirmations is needed to finalize your tx in. I assume they've done thorough research on this and might've come up with some logic to protect themselves from temporary branches.

In a few other posts, I often found people say at least 6 is needed. I mean obviously it's trade-off between efficiency and robustness, but just wondering what are some of the possible ways to push this number to the lower end while keeping the system as robust as possible.

**Tags:** transactions, confirmations, zero-confirmation, gdax


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2018-04-19. Score: 2 | Accepted answer

According to the [Bitcoin wiki](https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Confirmation) who refers to this [Analysis of hashrate-based double-spending](https://bitcoil.co.il/Doublespend.pdf):

> * No amount of confirmations username_0 reduce the success rate to 0.
> * If the attacker controls more hashrate than the honest network, no
>   amount of confirmations username_0 reduce the success rate below 100%.
> * There is nothing special about the default, often-cited figure of 6
>   confirmations. It was chosen based on the assumption that an attacker
>   is unlikely to amass more than 10% of the hashrate, and that a
>   negligible risk of less than 0.1% is acceptable. Both these figures
>   are arbitrary, however; 6 confirmations are overkill for casual
>   attackers, and at the same time powerless against more dedicated
>   attackers with much more than 10% hashrate.
>
> [![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/nYkbo.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/nYkbo.png)

So as you stated, it is nothing more than a trade-off.


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