A 34 and 60 minute wait for a BTC block to be mined?

[Green Square]

Hi,

I had to wait 34 minutes for a block to mined (#496453) with my transaction, and hence receive it's first confirmation. Earlier this morning, the same thing happened but it was 60 minutes for the initial confirmation block to be mined (#496410).

Needless to say, waiting for 6 confirmations it took *a while*.

Why does this happen (especially when I'm paying for $2-3 USD "priority" transactions)?


Thanks,

A blockchain noob.

 

[torusJKL]

Finding a block is a lottery.
On average a block is found every 10 minutes. But there is variance and thus sometimes blocks are found seconds and sometimes many minutes apart.

The fee has no influence on the variance but if you are included in the next block or have to wait in the queue.

P.S. Bitcoin Cash lets you transact with much lower fees.