In this guide
Bitcoin is the coin many people already hold, so plenty of SSTV IPTV customers like to pay with it. It’s also the coin behind most of our “where’s my payment?” messages, and nearly all of them come down to fees and waiting times. Here’s what’s going on.
How Bitcoin fees work
Bitcoin adds a block of transactions about every ten minutes on average, and each block has limited room. When many people want to send at once, they compete for that room by offering higher fees, and miners pick the best-paying transactions first. Your fee isn’t a percentage of the amount: it depends on how much data the transaction takes up, measured in virtual bytes, multiplied by the going rate in satoshis per virtual byte.
That’s why sending $40 can cost the same as sending $40,000, and why the cost can double between a quiet Sunday morning and a busy weekday afternoon.
How long SSTV IPTV waits
We need one confirmation: your transaction included in a block. Once that happens, the payment page marks the order paid and activation begins. With a normal fee, expect ten to twenty minutes, sometimes longer when the network is busy.
Your BTC amount is held for 60 minutes from the moment the payment page opens. What counts is that you send within that hour. If a transaction sent in time then takes a while to confirm, it’s still matched automatically, as long as it confirms within a few hours of the deadline; beyond that, a person checks it.
Choosing a fee
Most wallets offer presets such as slow, normal and fast, each with an estimated time. For your SSTV IPTV payment, “normal” is the sensible choice: the hour your amount is held is plenty, while the slowest presets can take hours on a busy day. Public mempool explorers show current rates if you want to check.
Sending from an exchange account
Exchanges usually charge a fixed Bitcoin withdrawal fee and set the network fee themselves. Two things to watch:
- The fee may come out of the amount you type. Add it on top so the requested figure arrives intact.
- Some exchanges batch withdrawals and broadcast them a few minutes later. The transaction ID only appears once they do, so paste it as soon as it shows.
When a payment is stuck
If your transaction has waited for hours without a confirmation, the fee was probably too low for the current demand. Your options:
- Replace-By-Fee (RBF). Many wallets have a “bump fee” or “speed up” button that re-sends the same payment with a higher fee. The transaction ID changes when you do this, so paste the new one on the payment page.
- Child-Pays-For-Parent (CPFP). If there’s no bump button but the transaction returned change to your wallet, some wallets can spend that change with a high fee, which pulls the original transaction along with it. This one is for confident users.
- Wait. Stuck transactions usually confirm once demand drops, often overnight or at the weekend. If one never confirms, it eventually falls out of the network and the coins stay in your wallet.
If your transfer confirms well after the deadline, open a ticket with the order number and the final transaction ID so we can check it by hand.
When another coin makes more sense
| If | Consider |
|---|---|
| Fees are high today and your plan is a short one | USDT on TRC20 or BEP20, usually far cheaper to send |
| You want activation within minutes | BNB or USDT on BEP20, confirmed in seconds |
| You want the amount to equal the dollar price | USDT |
A note on address formats
Most Bitcoin addresses today start with bc1 (the SegWit format); older ones start with 1 or 3. Every modern wallet and exchange can send to all of them. If an old wallet refuses, update it or send from an exchange.
Questions
Why do you need only one confirmation?
For a subscription payment, one block is a sensible balance between security and waiting time.
Can I pay with Lightning?
Not at the moment. Please send an ordinary on-chain Bitcoin transaction.
The BTC price moved while my transaction was pending. Does it matter?
No. Your BTC amount was fixed when the payment page opened, and as long as you sent it in time, price moves don’t matter.