unexpected rebroadcast of a rejected transaction.

[gorian13]

Hi guys,

  I am fairly new to bitcoin and I have a problem with a transaction I started with my blockchain.info wallet.
On February 23 I sent a small transaction and I messed up the fee, by that I mean that I accidentally set up the fee at 0.0001 instead of 0.001. Since I did this same mistake last year, I knew that, after a while, my transaction will probably be rejected. No big deal, after 2 days my transaction was rejected and the coins back to my wallet. So I start another transaction, with a proper fee this time. The problem is that, for no apparent reason, 4 hours after I created the new transaction, the old one is broadcasted again which provoked a double spend flag and both transactions are now stuck.
For the world of me, I can't understand why the first transaction appeared again after it's been dropped, moreover, I do not understand why the second transaction only shows on blockchain.info, I cannot find it on live.blockcypher.com or blocktrail.com.

Here are the transactions:

Rebroadcasted one:
https://blockchain.info/tx-index/225558310
ed54d94e793afcc985f6ecb159519e7147cfe187ff6980938b4719491ed8adaa

Proper one:
https://blockchain.info/tx/bcf506b7121b4e1d6549a00fd7cdd9946403fa9a067818ab8d9988412e9e8034?show_adv=true
bcf506b7121b4e1d6549a00fd7cdd9946403fa9a067818ab8d9988412e9e8034

If somebody can please help me understand what happened, that would be great. I have no idea how long it will take for one of them to get unstuck and what to do if both get rejected again.
Is there any way to fix this?

Thank you in advance for your help.

[1715163388]

1715163388

[1715163388]

1715163388

[1715163388]

1715163388

[1715163388]

1715163388

[achow101]

There is no universal time for a transaction to be considered invalid or rejected. Once a valid transaction is created, it is always valid until a double spending transaction is confirmed. Anyone can rebroadcast a transaction, so what probably happened was that someone has a node which just constantly rebroadcasts transactions, and your original low fee one was thus rebroadcasted.

The reason that your second transaction has poor propagation is likely due to the first transaction having been rebroadcast and thus causing nodes to reject your second transaction as a double spend.

[alexrossi]

You have been lucky since the one with the lower fee has been confirmed (https://blockchain.info/tx/ed54d94e793afcc985f6ecb159519e7147cfe187ff6980938b4719491ed8adaa)

Generally speaking the transaction with the higher fee will be broadcasted and confirmed, and this is also the concept behind replace by fee (without waiting 2 days, you can submit an additional transaction with raised fee that replace the low-priority one)

[gorian13]

Thanks for your answers, guys.

I've just seen that the first one has been confirmed, which is great. What about the second one, will it just disappear on it's own now?

Edit: Never mind, the second transaction just disappeared out of my wallet log.

[achow101]

What about the second one, will it just disappear on it's own now?

Yes. That transaction is now invalid and will be subsequently rejected from mempools now.