One confirmation means a transaction is in the latest block. Each further block makes reversing it more expensive. Exchanges wait for several confirmations on large deposits not because the first one is suspect, but because depth is precisely what makes rewriting history costly.
Confirmation
A count of how many blocks have been mined on top of the block containing a transaction.
Also called: confirmations
Next in the glossary
View all
Custody
The arrangement by which someone holds the keys to bitcoin on another party's behalf.
Difficulty adjustment
The automatic recalibration, every 2,016 blocks, that keeps blocks arriving roughly ten minutes apart.
Fee rate
What a transaction pays for block space, quoted per unit of size rather than as a…
The Bitcoiner
Stay Ahead of the Bitcoin Market
Bitcoin news, market intelligence and the stories that matter.