<p>The flaw in your thinking is that you assume your transactions will be confirmed. That is not the case. There is no guarantee that a transaction will ever be confirmed, and in fact, if the fee is too low, it is almost guaranteed that the transaction will never confirm.</p>
<p>You should care because the person you are sending Bitcoin to cares that it confirms. You should care because you won't receive what you are paying for until your transaction confirms. Most merchants will not consider the payment complete until at least one confirmation. If they do not consider the payment complete, you aren't going to be receiving any good or service that you have paid for.</p>
<p>Merchants (and other recipients) care about transactions confirming because it guarantees that the Bitcoin has actually been transferred. While a transaction is unconfirmed, it could be double spent and a different transaction that uses the same inputs and sends the Bitcoin elsewhere could be confirmed. If they accept the payment, provide the goods or service, and then find out that the transaction has been double spent, then they have both not made any money and lost the value of whatever has been provided to you. So receivers almost always wait for confirmations before considering a payment to be complete.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-02-07T19:04:46.120Z
2021-02-07T19:04:46.120Z
Ava Chow
<p>From what I understand, I can use unconfirmed transactions because they are essentially already confirmed, they just need to reach the blockchain. This can create a chain of unconfirmed transactions, but that's fine because they will all eventually be confirmed and added to the blockchain.</p>
<p>If that is the case, why should I care about my transactions ever reaching the blockchain? I don't see a reason why I should care, and with that, I don't see a reason to include a fee with my transactions.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-02-07T16:56:46.807Z
@PhilipsKuyper I'm confused. That last sentence tells me I should care even less about the fee because if I'm lucky the transaction will be dropped and I'm allowed to spend it again. What am I missing here?
Sheepolution
<transactions><blockchain><transaction-fees><unconfirmed-transactions><spending>
Why should I care about my transactions ever reaching the blockchain if I can spend them while unconfirmed?
Sheepolution
# Why should I care about my transactions ever reaching the blockchain if I can spend them while unconfirmed?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2021-02-07)

From what I understand, I can use unconfirmed transactions because they are essentially already confirmed, they just need to reach the blockchain. This can create a chain of unconfirmed transactions, but that's fine because they will all eventually be confirmed and added to the blockchain.

If that is the case, why should I care about my transactions ever reaching the blockchain? I don't see a reason why I should care, and with that, I don't see a reason to include a fee with my transactions.

**Tags:** transactions, blockchain, transaction-fees, unconfirmed-transactions, spending

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: @PhilipsKuyper I'm confused. That last sentence tells me I should care even less about the fee because if I'm lucky the transaction will be dropped and I'm allowed to spend it again. What am I missing here?  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2021-02-07. Score: 4

The flaw in your thinking is that you assume your transactions will be confirmed. That is not the case. There is no guarantee that a transaction will ever be confirmed, and in fact, if the fee is too low, it is almost guaranteed that the transaction will never confirm.

You should care because the person you are sending Bitcoin to cares that it confirms. You should care because you won't receive what you are paying for until your transaction confirms. Most merchants will not consider the payment complete until at least one confirmation. If they do not consider the payment complete, you aren't going to be receiving any good or service that you have paid for.

Merchants (and other recipients) care about transactions confirming because it guarantees that the Bitcoin has actually been transferred. While a transaction is unconfirmed, it could be double spent and a different transaction that uses the same inputs and sends the Bitcoin elsewhere could be confirmed. If they accept the payment, provide the goods or service, and then find out that the transaction has been double spent, then they have both not made any money and lost the value of whatever has been provided to you. So receivers almost always wait for confirmations before considering a payment to be complete.


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