Bitcoin exchange BTCC has added a new service to its platform that prioritizes bitcoin transaction confirmations. From now on, users will experience lower confirmation times.

BTCChina, the oldest, and one of the largest Bitcoin exchanges in the country, has developed BlockPriority; a new service that allows its users (even those that pay zero transaction fees) prioritized confirmations in transactions to and from BTCC wallets.

BlockPriority is also designed to grant fast confirmations when the Bitcoin network is under stress or during spam attacks. The service comes free of charge for all BTCC users and is already live within their system.

BTCC’s Chief Technology Officer, Mikael Wang, states:

“BlockPriority is the latest addition to our proprietary blockchain technology services. It demonstrates our commitment to providing our customers and the wider Bitcoin community with the best and most convenient experience possible.”

BlockPriority works by sending transactions to and from all BTCC wallets directly to the BTCC mining pool, which is one of the largest in the world - amounting for about 13% of the total hashing power.

Too Good To Be True?

We asked Pavel Kravchenko, Chief Cryptographer at Tembusu Systems, what BlockPriority’s advantages are, and if this technology can really make a difference. He commented:

“First, the average block size is still 0.5MB, second, the BTCC mining pool makes only 13% of hashing power. I think that the probability that a transaction will be processed faster is really small. In fact this feature is just a substitution for higher transaction fees that people pay to make their transactions being processed faster.”

According to Kravchenko, the best case scenario is one where the increase in transaction speed is probably just 13%, which corresponds to the hashing power of the BTCC pool. Thirteen percent? Is it possible that BTCC’s new BlockPriority service is merely a gimmick for PR? We contacted BTCC for more details on BlockPriority.

Samson Mow, BTCC's chief operating officer said: