What's the rule of thumb for an acceptable number of confirmations?
- 1 confirmation: sufficient for small payments less than $1,000.
- 3 confirmations: for payments $1,000 - $10,000. Most exchanges require 3 confirmations for deposits.
- 6 confirmations: good for large payments between $10,000 - $1,000,000. Six is standard for most transactions to be considered secure.
- 10 confirmations: suggested for large payments greater than $1,000,000.
If you do not want any reorganization attack to occur (but which is not possible as bitcoin network is right now), you need to wait for 56 confirmations. The reorganization risk is 0% starting from 56 confirmations.
But the way bitcoin network is right now, there is no problem with having just 2 confirmations.
There is nothing like zero risk in life. I believe in Bitcoin blockchain security, and many people believe similarly so that Bitcoin has very high value in the market.
It's pure belief that is not helpful for your fund safety so if you are carefully and don't want nothing wrong with your trade, you will take that confirmation number recommendations into account. The higher value of your trade with your trade partner, your concern on number of confirmation must be bigger and you naturally will wait a little bit longer like 30 more minutes, 60 more minutes to have better security and safety.
I believe that if you are trading your fortune, you will not take very high risk by 1 or 2 confirmations.
With very big trade, it makes sense to do it in several transactions.