Would just like to point out that you are correct that 6+ hours is a long time for a simple local transaction, but it is an amazing speed for an international transaction. Especially considering that the network is still in beta, was experiencing an attack, and that the fee paid was less than four cents.
This exactly. Also to be honest, 6+ hours is not long time even for 'simple local transaction' as most European countries still take one banking day even to transfer money inside the country if banks are different. I am Finnish and for example in Finland if you transfer from Bank 1 to Bank 2 (both banks operating in Finland) it will take 1-3 banking days. Regular SEPA transfer. In Finland we can only make instant transfers within the same bank.
Bitcoin transactions should take maximal 20-30 minutes to confirm. And comared to bank, it is really quick. Apparantly there was an attack on the blockchain, how can you forcome that your transaction won't get stuck?
Increase fee per transaction to 20k satoshi?30k satoshi?
It totally depends on the fees and/or priority. With 0 fees, my transaction waited for over 5 days and it didn't confirm so I double spent it. Increasing the fee could work but it would only work if the attacker doesn't pay a higher fee than you. For example, in the OPSig attacks, the attacker can spend lesser fee while getting miners to accept less legit transactions.