Bitcoin Forum

Hi I messed up this transaction, https://blockchain.info/tx/cea44bf24cf2b0dae9eb7e2070c0f1205ff1d40a2ed5f86fb1e8985ff0019635

I put in too many zeros on the fee. Won't happen again, would some merciful miner take it up? I'll drink a few pints in your honor.

No worries if not, it's only 6 dollars.

All the best,
Andy

It's ok, I was under the impression from all I had read here and elsewhere, that the transaction would never complete and I would lose the BTC but it seems to have disappeared from my wallet and not been deducted from my balance.

That's different from everything I read. Have things changed recently so that transactions that don't get included are cancelled or something?
Cheers.

Transactions has never been 'canceled'. If they remain in the mempool for several days, the node's mempool would just exclude it and if every node does that, the transaction would be as if it has never happened before. Some clients may attempt to rebroadcast the transaction periodically or when nodes drop the transaction from their mempool. If this happens, the transaction will never be dropped from the mempool till the rebroadcast stops.

You will never lose any BTC if the transaction is unconfirmed.

If you read somewhere that you would lose the bitcoin AND the transaction would never complete, they are completely wrong.  There is no "intermediate" state with bitcoin.  Either you control it or you don't.  It isn't in a "mid-state transfer" since bitcoin is based on the concept of inputs and outputs.

As stated above, they could remain in nodes mempool for several days, but even this is dependent on the settings of nodes.

Thanks cr1776 for clearing that up. There's an amazing amount of crap from a search for info, all kinds of convoluted things to do if your fee is too low.

Thanks for taking the time to reply. I'm using Electrum which seems to be quite sensibly designed. I don't know where all those myths all over the web come from.

Cheers
Andy

Well now you're a double spender.  What did you do?!

https://blockchain.info/tx-index/184374191

https://blockchain.info/tx-index/184554350

Yep. Embarrassing! And preserved forever in the blockchain. The first one disappeared completely from my wallet, with no debit, so I assumed it had been dropped. I tried to make the same purchase again, but with a higher fee. This one has now got 50 confirmations, so am I right in guessing that it's impossible for the first one to get any confirmations now, and eventually it will disappear?

Thanks
Andy

 I'm pretty sure that unconfirmed one will eventually be dropped but I don't know about the double spend tag ;)
Oh well.  Lesson learned right?

Uhh... That's a normal occurrence that happens when someone successfully broadcasted 2 separate transactions with same inputs. Resending with higher fee would do that.


No, the first one that you posted already got 50 confirmations. It's the second tx that will disappear eventually.

thanks for all the advice, learning a lot here, appreciate that you take the time.