What happens to unconfirmed transactions? (blockchain.info)

[jimbursch]

I've been doing some testing, using small transactions with a Blockchain wallet, and I seem to have clogged up the wallet. You can see it here:
https://blockchain.info/address/16fiVNiuWnDY3wV4NbNR7zgMn4FbEbhr5D

There's a transaction there for 0.001 BTC with 0 transaction fee. I suspect that that transaction  is preventing all the following transactions from getting into the blockchain.  None of those transactions appear on Block Explorer.

I presume that this is an issue with BlockChain, not Bitcoin. Or am I wrong?

It has been over 30 hours since that transaction was submitted. Is it possible that it can still be confirmed? If not, what happens to the transaction?

I have a support ticket in with BlockChain to take a look at it, but I don't know how responsive they are.

[kjj]

All you can do is hope that a miner takes pity on your transaction and includes it.  Or, you can offline your wallet, delete the transaction, wait until the rest of the network has forgotten it, then pop back up and use the rawtransaction API to redeem that input (with some others) back to your wallet.

[jimbursch]

I understand that 0.0 tx fee transactions of a low amount will be delayed. That's understandable. But how long? Is it possible or likely that it would never be processed?

This would make bitcoin unusable for micro payments.

And am I right that one transaction is holding up all the subsequent transactions?

[Stephen Gornick]

It has been over 30 hours since that transaction was submitted. Is it possible that it can still be confirmed?

Well, the transaction won't even be relayed by the Bitcoin-Qt/bitcoind client because it has an output below 0.01 BTC.

If you had made this transaction from the Bitcoin-Qt client, it will continue to try to re-broadcast the transaction, maybe hourly, and presumably eventually it would reach a miner directly and eventually get mined.

Blockchain.info/wallet doesn't seem to re-broadcast indefinitely.  It seems to abandon a transaction after a certain period of time passes and the transaction doesn't get a confirmation.    The transaction then disappears from blockchain.info/wallet as if it had never been made.

If you need the fund, you could import the private key that spent the funds to another client and try to spend the funds that way.  Of course, that is a double spend and all the other transactions you made using that coin or any children transaction would instantly become invalid.

[Stephen Gornick]

This would make bitcoin unusable for micro payments.

Bingo!

At the time the logic was developed, a 0.01 BTC payment was a "micro transaction".  Now at an amount over a dollar fifty, there are payments which that you'ld think would not be considered micro transactions but the network does consider them as micro transactions.

Paying a fee resolves that.

The Bitcoin-Qt/bitcoind client would have insisted on a fee in this instance.  Blockchain.info/wallet ...  not so much.

[jimbursch]

This morning when I woke up and checked, all the transactions had cleared:
https://blockchain.info/address/16fiVNiuWnDY3wV4NbNR7zgMn4FbEbhr5D

So, my takeaway is that bitcoin is not entirely unusable for micro payments, but practically unusuable. I'm still not sure if this was an issue with the Blockchain wallet, or with bitcoin.

I did several 0.001 transactions with 0.0005 tx fee using an Armory wallet, and most often the transactions got their first confirmation within 10 minutes. One took over an hour.

I would say that currently there are two barriers to bitcoin being a useful micro payment system:

1. Confirmation delays
2. High relative transaction fee

[Bitcoinpro]

This morning when I woke up and checked, all the transactions had cleared:
https://blockchain.info/address/16fiVNiuWnDY3wV4NbNR7zgMn4FbEbhr5D

So, my takeaway is that bitcoin is not entirely unusable for micro payments, but practically unusuable. I'm still not sure if this was an issue with the Blockchain wallet, or with bitcoin.

I did several 0.001 transactions with 0.0005 tx fee using an Armory wallet, and most often the transactions got their first confirmation within 10 minutes. One took over an hour.

I would say that currently there are two barriers to bitcoin being a useful micro payment system:

1. Confirmation delays
2. High relative transaction fee

1. Vendors could start making clearing facilities as coin becomes more widespread, for transactions that need quick clearance
2. Transactions fees should be lowered as the value of coin increases

[Stephen Gornick]

I would say that currently there are two barriers to bitcoin being a useful micro payment system:

Bitcoin's reason for existing is to be a payment system that is resistant to external control.

It accomplishes this through distributed storage and decentralized verification process.  

This is expensive as every transaction is relayed to and stored on each node.

Therefore, microtransactions on the bitcoin blockchain are not a good idea.  You can do it today, but the costs (transaction fees) will be relatively prohibitive and results inconsistent (read frequent delays in getting confirmations).

Services that truly require microtansactions (e.g., digital goods sold for pennies a piece, etc.) can implement an E-Wallet so that customers can transact using fewer, larger payments.

Or you might consider something like Ripple.

[matthewh3]

Blockchain.info have dropped the transaction fee to BTC0.0001 when you use the frugal setting for tx fees at least.

[BitSmile]

Blockchain.info have dropped the transaction fee to BTC0.0001 when you use the frugal setting for tx fees at least.

But will it be confirmed with that amount? I forgot I had set mine to 0.0001 and did a transaction, now I'm afraid of it not being accepted by miners...

[Abdussamad]

I think the bigger question is how you managed to make a transaction using a blockchain wallet without paying a transaction fee? I tried it once using the custom send option and it automatically set the fee to 0.0005 and wouldn't let me change it to zero.

[Abdussamad]

Blockchain.info have dropped the transaction fee to BTC0.0001 when you use the frugal setting for tx fees at least.

But will it be confirmed with that amount? I forgot I had set mine to 0.0001 and did a transaction, now I'm afraid of it not being accepted by miners...

Oh it'll be confirmed... eventually. Even zero fee transactions get confirmed after a while.

[BitSmile]

Blockchain.info have dropped the transaction fee to BTC0.0001 when you use the frugal setting for tx fees at least.

But will it be confirmed with that amount? I forgot I had set mine to 0.0001 and did a transaction, now I'm afraid of it not being accepted by miners...

Oh it'll be confirmed... eventually. Even zero fee transactions get confirmed after a while.

It took about 5 and a half hours to confirm at 0.0001

[evilpete]

Blockchain.info have dropped the transaction fee to BTC0.0001 when you use the frugal setting for tx fees at least.

But will it be confirmed with that amount? I forgot I had set mine to 0.0001 and did a transaction, now I'm afraid of it not being accepted by miners...

Oh it'll be confirmed... eventually. Even zero fee transactions get confirmed after a while.

It took about 5 and a half hours to confirm at 0.0001

0.0001 per kb is the lowest limit that I know of that will be confirmed.  It seems btcguild will confirm down to 0.0001 but won't confirm below that.

The transactions in the OP's post will never confirm unless he makes an arrangement with a miner to include them.  https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Transaction_fees   Outputs are below 0.01, so fees are *required*, period.

[Voodah]

This would make bitcoin unusable for micro payments.

Bingo!

At the time the logic was developed, a 0.01 BTC payment was a "micro transaction".  Now at an amount over a dollar fifty, there are payments which that you'ld think would not be considered micro transactions but the network does consider them as micro transactions.

Paying a fee resolves that.

The Bitcoin-Qt/bitcoind client would have insisted on a fee in this instance.  Blockchain.info/wallet ...  not so much.

I don't get how 0.01 would be considered micro when they had planned to go as far as the satoshi.

Say btc becomes incredibly valuable, and 100 Satoshi = 1 usd. Will we not be able to use such amounts?

[Zangelbert Bingledack]

Blockchain.info have dropped the transaction fee to BTC0.0001 when you use the frugal setting for tx fees at least.

But will it be confirmed with that amount? I forgot I had set mine to 0.0001 and did a transaction, now I'm afraid of it not being accepted by miners...

Oh it'll be confirmed... eventually. Even zero fee transactions get confirmed after a while.

It took about 5 and a half hours to confirm at 0.0001

0.0001 per kb is the lowest limit that I know of that will be confirmed.  It seems btcguild will confirm down to 0.0001 but won't confirm below that.

The transactions in the OP's post will never confirm unless he makes an arrangement with a miner to include them.  https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Transaction_fees   Outputs are below 0.01, so fees are *required*, period.

How would one go about making arrangements with a miner to relay a tx where you forgot the fee? Is there a standard procedure for this, or do you just post a bounty on the Mining forum?

[DannyHamilton]

How would one go about making arrangements with a miner to relay a tx where you forgot the fee? Is there a standard procedure for this, or do you just post a bounty on the Mining forum?

There is no standard procedure for this.  The best you can do is post a bounty on the mining forum and hope that you've provided enough incentive for enough miners to take pity on you and help you out.

[d-angel2001]

Hello,

I found this post while having the same problem on blockchain.info. I made my first micro-transaction using blockchain.info wallet - that also got unconfirmed for hours!

I have the wallet mirrored/exported to another bitcoind hosted on my own. Usually I used that using bitcoind-rpc to send raw-transactions and those transactions (also forced to send without any fee!) usually got confirmed within 10 Minutes to a few hours max.

The transaction on Blockchain.info seems to stay unconfirmed since yesterday while my transactions using my own bitcoind instance got it's first confirmations in about 10-30 Minutes (but still needs about 1-2 hours since full confirmation in the network).


So for what reason ever my own instance of bitcoind is much more reliable for micro-transactions. But having a cloned wallet-instance (import bitcoind wallet.dat on blockchain.info) seems to be a good idea for fallback and backup. But keep in mind to have wallet.dat backed up in another save place as no raw-export of wallet.dat from blockchain.info is possible!


Best regards
Gabriel

[boumalo]

f09f044f8f310d6a0a2f49770944155122071077a81b70e520d311795d575403
2441be5fe3e409378464073a13e067a03638f233bebbbbcd6d9cb920af7cdfb7
262471008702b7add704e2ef3a12bd04501dbfa53cea625d7f60b9c4a27418ad

I have been waiting for those since March 11 : 11days, it has been sent without a fee, I am afraid that the transactions will be cancelled after a while and I will never get the money

[DannyHamilton]

f09f044f8f310d6a0a2f49770944155122071077a81b70e520d311795d575403
2441be5fe3e409378464073a13e067a03638f233bebbbbcd6d9cb920af7cdfb7
262471008702b7add704e2ef3a12bd04501dbfa53cea625d7f60b9c4a27418ad

I have been waiting for those since March 11 : 11days, it has been sent without a fee, I am afraid that the transactions will be cancelled after a while and I will never get the money

I don't see any of those transactions. What wallet program are you using?