Why do incoming transfers appear in my wallet later than in block explorer?

Question

ok, so I'm running the standard monero client ( simplewallet ).

Twice now I have received incoming transfers from shapeshift.io. The shapeshift interface notified me at the moment the xmr transfer was sent and provides a link to a block explorer to view the tx. So clearly the tx has been broadcast to the network.

Yet nothing appears in my monero wallet for 1-2 minutes.

I tried the balance and the show_transfer commands.

I see that there is an incoming_transfers command, but I did not try it until after the tx already showed up.

I am used to bitcoin and other altcoins get getinfo, getbalance, list_transactions, etc all show incoming transfers as soon as they are broadcast/received.

It's kind of spooky not to see the coins immediately. Also, I think it would be especially annoying during in-person exchanges.

"hey i sent you the coins".

"hmm, I don't see them."

"still don't see them". ( 30 seconds later )

"are you sure you sent to the right address?!!". ( 30 seconds later )

etc.

more than likely there is a way to see them immediately and this is me being a newb, but I wanted to raise the question because I think it is a rough-edge that newbs will bump into a lot, so maybe the devs can address it in the software somehow.

Answer 1

The explorer is likely listing the transasctions that are in the pool (ie, not yet mined). Recent simplewallet will show those with show_tranfers, as "pool".

Bear in mind that a transaction in the pool which hasn't been mined is not yours yet. If all goes well, it'll be yours soon, but you should not trust a pool transaction yet for large amounts if you think the other party might try to scam you.