I'm with you on being bearish on Bitcoin. Even though it might go up in the next year or two, I can't stand using it. I transferred some BTC from Polo to Circle pay today and it took over 2.5 hours for it to show up in my Circle account. There is no way that will be adopted mainstream if that continues to be the case. We want instant gratification, and results.
With that said, how quickly does XMR transactions settle? I'm bullish on it from a trading perspective but don't have good technical comprehension of the specs.
Since the Monero network is far less secure than Bitcoin's, you must wait proportionally longer for the same degree of confirmation reliability (ie irreversibility) .
Let's very generously assume Monero has 10% of Bitcoin's blockchain security/immutability (best way to measure the different PoW is probably by how much electricity each consumes). 6 confirmations are recommended for Bitcoin so at 10 minutes each that's 1 hour. Now multiply that by 10 to account for Monero's relative strength, and we get 6 hours.
That number is way out. Monero network is less secure then Bitcoin, but is also less worth so attacking it would bring less profit and is less likely to be attacked.
6 bitcoin confirmations is quite a bit. I think 4 are more then enough. One Monero block takes 2 minutes so in 40 minutes that Bitcoin should have 4 confirmations, Monero will have 20.
So basically there is a ratio of "attack-ability" to "reward".
The cost and reward of attacking.
But there also exists some who may not want a reward monetarily from attacking say Monero.
The reward may come from devaluing another crypto because of its "insecurity" in network hash by attacking it purely to create short-term chaos.
Direct and indirect "rewards" exist.
Since I just registred on Bitfinex and am learning what they have to offer I found something on this subject:
Bitcoin deposits are credited after a minimum of 3 confirmations (about 30 minutes, sometimes longer)
Litecoin deposits are credited after a minimum of 6 confirmations (about 20 minutes, sometimes longer)
Monero deposits are credited after a minimum of 15 confirmations (about 40 minutes, sometimes longer)
Zcash deposits are credited after a minimum of 15 confirmations (about 60 minutes, sometimes longer)
Ether deposits are credited after a minimum of 100 confirmations (about 30 minutes, sometimes longer)
EtherClassic deposits are credited after a minimum of 150 confirmations (about 60 minutes, sometimes longer)
It seems they think Monero needs 5 times more confirmations then Bitcoin. What I still think is overkill. Wonder how this will change with time. What will be a year from now.
