Current transaction volume --- who/what's behind it

[tspacepilot]

Hi everyone,

I know about the "stress tests" of a few weeks ago, these were publically discussed and there was a group taking credit for it and talking about how much they spent and cetera.  But in the last week transaction volume and backlock of unconfirmed transactions seem to have hit new heights and are staying high.  I haven't yet figured out who or what is behind this.  It seems like if it were just another spammer doing a "stress test" attack then they're going to have to run out of money sooner or later.

I ask because I sent a 256byte transaction with a 2KSat fee almost 5 days ago and still no confirmations.  Thus I keep checking the number of unconfirmed tx and thus I keep seeing how high it it.  But I haven't found a bitcointalk thread discussing this current situation/attack and I'm really starting to wonder what's happening.

Tips/links/explanations much appreciatated!

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[Panthers52]

I ask because I sent a 256byte transaction with a 2KSat fee almost 5 days ago and still no confirmations. 

What is your txid? I will look at it for you

Thus I keep checking the number of unconfirmed tx and thus I keep seeing how high it it.  But I haven't found a bitcointalk thread discussing this current situation/attack and I'm really starting to wonder what's happening.

There is not actually a "number" of unconfirmed tx on the network. Each node has it's own policy of which tx to relay, some based off of size verses tx fee and some based off of who is sending/receiving the tx.

For example, if you were to "ask" eligius how many unconfirmed transactions there are, they would give you a much smaller number then if you "asked" AntPool.

Kind Regards

[tspacepilot]

I ask because I sent a 256byte transaction with a 2KSat fee almost 5 days ago and still no confirmations. 

What is your txid? I will look at it for you

Thus I keep checking the number of unconfirmed tx and thus I keep seeing how high it it.  But I haven't found a bitcointalk thread discussing this current situation/attack and I'm really starting to wonder what's happening.

There is not actually a "number" of unconfirmed tx on the network. Each node has it's own policy of which tx to relay, some based off of size verses tx fee and some based off of who is sending/receiving the tx.

For example, if you were to "ask" eligius how many unconfirmed transactions there are, they would give you a much smaller number then if you "asked" AntPool.

Kind Regards

Good point about the fact that there's not actually an official number of unconfirmed tx on the network.  I understand.  However, I can look at http://blockchain.info/unconfirmed-transactions and see that there are currently more than 19K transactions waiting for confirmation according to one particular node.  When I looked at this page anytime in the past few years it tended to be between 500 and 1500 unconfirmed transactions, so the change is an order of magnitude. I think that kind of scale overcomes any sort of difference between nodes.   Ie, it's not the case that bci has 19K unconfirmed tx and antpool has 500.  The same page shows that transactions are being sent at approx 0.8 per second.  These numbers are simply much higher than they were a month ago.  Something is happening.  I'm just trying to figure out what.

[AgentofCoin]

I ask because I sent a 256byte transaction with a 2KSat fee almost 5 days ago and still no confirmations. 

What is your txid? I will look at it for you

Thus I keep checking the number of unconfirmed tx and thus I keep seeing how high it it.  But I haven't found a bitcointalk thread discussing this current situation/attack and I'm really starting to wonder what's happening.

There is not actually a "number" of unconfirmed tx on the network. Each node has it's own policy of which tx to relay, some based off of size verses tx fee and some based off of who is sending/receiving the tx.

For example, if you were to "ask" eligius how many unconfirmed transactions there are, they would give you a much smaller number then if you "asked" AntPool.

Kind Regards

Good point about the fact that there's not actually an official number of unconfirmed tx on the network.  I understand.  However, I can look at http://blockchain.info/unconfirmed-transactions and see that there are currently more than 19K transactions waiting for confirmation according to one particular node.  When I looked at this page anytime in the past few years it tended to be between 500 and 1500 unconfirmed transactions, so the change is an order of magnitude. I think that kind of scale overcomes any sort of difference between nodes.   Ie, it's not the case that bci has 19K unconfirmed tx and antpool has 500.  The same page shows that transactions are being sent at approx 0.8 per second.  These numbers are simply much higher than they were a month ago.  Something is happening.  I'm just trying to figure out what.

I think there is 26k tx in the mempool from nodes that are not cutting out the spam. So roughly 26k are waiting a single confirm.
In relation to who is behind the last test/attack, it was either Chinese miners or Chinese LTC Pumpers. That is why no one has taken credit.

[Panthers52]

I ask because I sent a 256byte transaction with a 2KSat fee almost 5 days ago and still no confirmations. 

What is your txid? I will look at it for you

Thus I keep checking the number of unconfirmed tx and thus I keep seeing how high it it.  But I haven't found a bitcointalk thread discussing this current situation/attack and I'm really starting to wonder what's happening.

There is not actually a "number" of unconfirmed tx on the network. Each node has it's own policy of which tx to relay, some based off of size verses tx fee and some based off of who is sending/receiving the tx.

For example, if you were to "ask" eligius how many unconfirmed transactions there are, they would give you a much smaller number then if you "asked" AntPool.

Kind Regards

Good point about the fact that there's not actually an official number of unconfirmed tx on the network.  I understand.  However, I can look at http://blockchain.info/unconfirmed-transactions and see that there are currently more than 19K transactions waiting for confirmation according to one particular node.  When I looked at this page anytime in the past few years it tended to be between 500 and 1500 unconfirmed transactions, so the change is an order of magnitude. I think that kind of scale overcomes any sort of difference between nodes.   Ie, it's not the case that bci has 19K unconfirmed tx and antpool has 500.  The same page shows that transactions are being sent at approx 0.8 per second.  These numbers are simply much higher than they were a month ago.  Something is happening.  I'm just trying to figure out what.

The nodes that blockchain.info uses may have different rules then what other nodes may use. If you look at blockchain.info's rejected inventory you will see that it is rejecting a large number of transactions that are including fees that are less then what many other nodes will relay by default. When those transactions are not yet confirmed and a new transaction that relies on at least one of those outputs then blockchain.info will think the transaction is invalid when it is not.

My node is showing 42k unconfirmed transactions that will take up 132 MB worth of block space. This is probably a more accurate representation of the unconfirmed transactions out there.

You should really not rely on blockchain.info for this kind of information because they have a long history of getting things incorrect.

They are also incorrect regarding the number of transactions per second. A much better source, http://statoshi.info/dashboard/db/transactions is reporting between 1 and 2 transactions per second right now, this is probably more accurate. The overall best way to get information about the current state of the network is to get it from bitcoind that is running on your full node. If you are lucky, you can rent a VPS for only a few dollars per month with high enough specs to support running bitcoind, if you are not lucky then you can rent one for only ~$10 per month.

What is your txid? I will look at it for you

Post or PM me the txid and I will see if I can help you out

[tspacepilot]

I think there is 26k tx in the mempool from nodes that are not cutting out the spam. So roughly 26k are waiting a single confirm.
In relation to who is behind the last test/attack, it was either Chinese miners or Chinese LTC Pumpers. That is why no one has taken credit.

Who ever it is must be spending a whole lot of money to be keeping it up this long.  I guess I'm surprised not to find more talk on this board somewhere about how long this might go on and what it's costing the perpetrator to continue.

The nodes that blockchain.info uses may have different rules then what other nodes may use. If you look at blockchain.info's rejected inventory you will see that it is rejecting a large number of transactions that are including fees that are less then what many other nodes will relay by default. When those transactions are not yet confirmed and a new transaction that relies on at least one of those outputs then blockchain.info will think the transaction is invalid when it is not.

Thanks for the additional info here

My node is showing 42k unconfirmed transactions that will take up 132 MB worth of block space. This is probably a more accurate representation of the unconfirmed transactions out there.

You should really not rely on blockchain.info for this kind of information because they have a long history of getting things incorrect.

I understand.  And I'm aware of bci's history.  However, when it comes to what's going on now, even a very blunt instrument is sufficient to show that there's a large difference  between the state of affairs with respect to unconfirmed transactions for the last 7 days or so and any 7 days in say, may 2015.  Something/someone is doing something and I'm more interested in the moment in finding out more about who that might be than finding out exactly how many transactions are in the queue.  For me at the moment, observing that the queue is waaaay huger than it typically is is a sufficient measure.

They are also incorrect regarding the number of transactions per second. A much better source, http://statoshi.info/dashboard/db/transactions is reporting between 1 and 2 transactions per second right now, this is probably more accurate. The overall best way to get information about the current state of the network is to get it from bitcoind that is running on your full node. If you are lucky, you can rent a VPS for only a few dollars per month with high enough specs to support running bitcoind, if you are not lucky then you can rent one for only ~$10 per month.

Yes, I have computers.  I run linux, I'm happy to run a full node and I used to do so.  At the moment I'm not doing so, but I appreciate your suggestions here.

What is your txid? I will look at it for you

Post or PM me the txid and I will see if I can help you out

I guess  I could tell you the transaction id but I'm not sure what you mean by "help me out".  Unless you have a lot of hashing power at your disposal I don't see how you're going to get my transaction into a block any faster, are you?  Just curious what your offer of help is supposed to mean.

Thanks for the replies, fellas.

[avw1982]

I think the Chinese are behind the current transaction volume and one of the reasons would be that their government has banned major stock holders to sell  stocks for the next 6 months, some may have adapted to Bitcoin as these rules kicked in.

[S4VV4S]

Are you guys sure it's not another stress test.
I remember the previous ones didn't go as planned and at the time they were announce they would be.
So maybe it's another stress test.
Btw, I am seing 16K unconfirmed transactions (at the time of writing this) on blockchain.info

[shorena]

Are you guys sure it's not another stress test.
I remember the previous ones didn't go as planned and at the time they were announce they would be.
So maybe it's another stress test.
Btw, I am seing 16K unconfirmed transactions (at the time of writing this) on blockchain.info

I dont think anyone is willing to burn that kind of money just to "test" the network. The networks behavior was pretty clear during the first tests. There was a LTC pump and dump recently and now BTC crashed from 300. This might not be related to the attack though.

This dwarfs the first stress tests and is significantly longer in duration. My node currently sees somewhere between 42k and 60k unconfirmed TX. My node at home is running 0.11. and witnessed ~27k TX (~80MB) over night. I did however change it to accept any fee (as low as 1 satoshi) and plenty of free TX in order to make sure I get all of the spam.

Blockchain.info however modified their nodes to not accept most of the spam TX, which would explain why they show such a "low" number.

[tspacepilot]

Are you guys sure it's not another stress test.
I remember the previous ones didn't go as planned and at the time they were announce they would be.
So maybe it's another stress test.
Btw, I am seing 16K unconfirmed transactions (at the time of writing this) on blockchain.info

I dont think anyone is willing to burn that kind of money just to "test" the network. The networks behavior was pretty clear during the first tests. There was a LTC pump and dump recently and now BTC crashed from 300. This might not be related to the attack though.

This dwarfs the first stress tests and is significantly longer in duration. My node currently sees somewhere between 42k and 60k unconfirmed TX. My node at home is running 0.11. and witnessed ~27k TX (~80MB) over night. I did however change it to accept any fee (as low as 1 satoshi) and plenty of free TX in order to make sure I get all of the spam.

Blockchain.info however modified their nodes to not accept most of the spam TX, which would explain why they show such a "low" number.

Thanks for thet chart, Sho, it shows quite clearly that whatever is going on is orders of magnitude larger than what happened on 23/6 and 1/7.  Now I'm just wondering who is doing it and how long they can keep it up.

[scarsbergholden]

Are you guys sure it's not another stress test.
I remember the previous ones didn't go as planned and at the time they were announce they would be.
So maybe it's another stress test.
Btw, I am seing 16K unconfirmed transactions (at the time of writing this) on blockchain.info

I dont think anyone is willing to burn that kind of money just to "test" the network. The networks behavior was pretty clear during the first tests. There was a LTC pump and dump recently and now BTC crashed from 300. This might not be related to the attack though.

This dwarfs the first stress tests and is significantly longer in duration. My node currently sees somewhere between 42k and 60k unconfirmed TX. My node at home is running 0.11. and witnessed ~27k TX (~80MB) over night. I did however change it to accept any fee (as low as 1 satoshi) and plenty of free TX in order to make sure I get all of the spam.

Blockchain.info however modified their nodes to not accept most of the spam TX, which would explain why they show such a "low" number.

Thanks for thet chart, Sho, it shows quite clearly that whatever is going on is orders of magnitude larger than what happened on 23/6 and 1/7.  Now I'm just wondering who is doing it and how long they can keep it up.

May i ask where did you get that chart from, thank for it also i havent been able to find something like that to see a 30 day perceptive of the transaction volume progress, I do also wonder how long would they or he could keep up that high volume of transactions is most likely to be a large operator to run that type of volume.

[AgentofCoin]

Are you guys sure it's not another stress test.
I remember the previous ones didn't go as planned and at the time they were announce they would be.
So maybe it's another stress test.
Btw, I am seing 16K unconfirmed transactions (at the time of writing this) on blockchain.info

I dont think anyone is willing to burn that kind of money just to "test" the network. The networks behavior was pretty clear during the first tests. There was a LTC pump and dump recently and now BTC crashed from 300. This might not be related to the attack though.

This dwarfs the first stress tests and is significantly longer in duration. My node currently sees somewhere between 42k and 60k unconfirmed TX. My node at home is running 0.11. and witnessed ~27k TX (~80MB) over night. I did however change it to accept any fee (as low as 1 satoshi) and plenty of free TX in order to make sure I get all of the spam.

Blockchain.info however modified their nodes to not accept most of the spam TX, which would explain why they show such a "low" number.

Thanks for thet chart, Sho, it shows quite clearly that whatever is going on is orders of magnitude larger than what happened on 23/6 and 1/7.  Now I'm just wondering who is doing it and how long they can keep it up.

May i ask where did you get that chart from, thank for it also i havent been able to find something like that to see a 30 day perceptive of the transaction volume progress, I do also wonder how long would they or he could keep up that high volume of transactions is most likely to be a large operator to run that type of volume.

That chart comes from Shorena's Node (its provided in Shorena's profile). http://213.165.91.169/

[Meuh6879]

I ask because I sent a 256byte transaction with a 2KSat fee

yesterday = 0,00015 BTC of fees = no problem.

[tspacepilot]

Thankfully my transaction finally confirmed today after 5 days.  Amazing changes going on in bitcoin these days.  I wonder what the future brings.  Hopefully transaction competition isn't going to stay this stiff. 

[Panthers52]

Thankfully my transaction finally confirmed today after 5 days.  Amazing changes going on in bitcoin these days.  I wonder what the future brings.  Hopefully transaction competition isn't going to stay this stiff. 

I am surprised that any nodes were still relaying the transaction after that long, especially if you are not running a full node that is rebroadcasting the transaction. May I ask which pool still had the transaction in their mempool when they confirmed it?

[tspacepilot]

Thankfully my transaction finally confirmed today after 5 days.  Amazing changes going on in bitcoin these days.  I wonder what the future brings.  Hopefully transaction competition isn't going to stay this stiff.  

I am surprised that any nodes were still relaying the transaction after that long, especially if you are not running a full node that is rebroadcasting the transaction. May I ask which pool still had the transaction in their mempool when they confirmed it?

It was included in block 365100, which was relayed by bitfury.  I don't know if that answers your question.  I suppose it may have been in more than one pool's mempool, but I don't think I have a way to tell.

In case you're curious, I created the transaction using schildbach's bitcoin wallet for android, so perhaps BWA rebroadcasts from time to time.  I have to admit, I've never looked into it but I'd appreciate any enlightenment you have for me on the subject.

[Nrcewker]

some unpredictable things would happen? the one thing is that price is raising to $300. anyway, this is a good sign

[everaja]

The total number of un-confirmed transactions are increasing day by day , one of the main reason is sudden hike in price(BTC/USD) , it leads to high volume transaction from the traders who want quick profits on e more reason is small spam bulk volumes which is considerably making the traffic worst.
the counting is still bumping , but you can have a look to the recent ones here- http://blockchain.info/unconfirmed-transactions

Blockchain however modified their nodes to not accept most of the Transactions that are spam.

[tspacepilot]

The total number of un-confirmed transactions are increasing day by day , one of the main reason is sudden hike in price(BTC/USD) , it leads to high volume transaction from the traders who want quick profits

But the price "hike" you're talking about is from 250USD to like 300USD.  This hardly seems like a huge factor given that btc was at an all time high of like 1500USD and was over 500USD only like 8 months ago.  I have a hard time believing all these transactions are from legitimate trading volume.

on e more reason is small spam bulk volumes which is considerably making the traffic worst.

Yes, it seems there is some spam attack happening.  I'm personally quite surprised that it can be pulled off this long, someone must be spending a lot of money on this.  And why?  That's what I havent' figured out.

the counting is still bumping , but you can have a look to the recent ones here- http://blockchain.info/unconfirmed-transactions

Blockchain however modified their nodes to not accept most of the Transactions that are spam.

Yes, this was already discussed upthread (it's really not a long thread, it's important to read before replying, especially when you're wearing a signature advertisement).

[MF Doom]

The total number of un-confirmed transactions are increasing day by day , one of the main reason is sudden hike in price(BTC/USD) , it leads to high volume transaction from the traders who want quick profits on e more reason is small spam bulk volumes which is considerably making the traffic worst.
the counting is still bumping , but you can have a look to the recent ones here- http://blockchain.info/unconfirmed-transactions

Blockchain however modified their nodes to not accept most of the Transactions that are spam.

So if "mass adoption" all the sudden happened and tons more people worldwide started using and transacting with btc, could the network handle it?  What kind of issues would come up?  Really long wait times for confirmations?