BitGo Makes Zero-Confirm Bitcoin Transactions Safe For Business, Launches BitGo Instant

BitGo Inc., the multi-sig bitcoin wallet provider, today announced the launch of BitGo Instant – the world’s first way to safely receive zero-confirm Bitcoin transactions with a full financial guarantee.

The service is launching with a strong list of initial partners including Bitfinex, Bitstamp, Kraken, CoinHako, FoldApp, Genesis Trading, Shapeshift, Korbit, Unocoin, and SFOX. BitGo said that these partners have agreed to give customers using a BitGo Instant transaction immediate credit, giving the customer the ability to trade almost instantly.

The company explains that usually a Bitcoin transaction takes about ten minutes to be recorded in a block by miners, also known as receiving a single “confirmation” and the transactions that have not yet been included in a block are known as “zero-confirm” transactions. These unconfirmed transactions are unsafe to be relied on as the sender can spend the money elsewhere before the transaction is confirmed.

This in turn necessitates multiple confirmations to credit a customer’s account. However, slow and unpredictable rate of block creation by miners results in longer wait times on deposits ranging from 30 minutes to multiple hours.

By co-signing a BitGo Instant transaction, the company will issue a cryptographically signed guarantee on the transaction. If that transaction is not ultimately confirmed in the blockchain, the recipient of a BitGo Instant transaction can file a claim and will be compensated in full by BitGo, the press release said.

“BitGo Instant is an elegant solution that lets users send bitcoin quickly and easily. Many Bitcoin businesses would love to be able to accept zero-confirm transactions, but it’s been too risky to consider until now. We’re excited to be supporting this much-needed innovation from day one”, said Nejc Kodrič, CEO of Bitstamp.