double spent and unconfirmed??

[asiaticus]

Last evening I made a transaction by sending about 0.008 bitcoin out. I realized that the fee I entered was way too underpriced and the transaction stayed at unconfirmed all night. this morning I erased the transaction by the starting bitcoin core with zapwallett and rescan. the transaction was erased and I sent another one to the same address with a much higher fee. I checked the block chain for the transaction ID and it said it was double spent and unconfirmed?? I waited a little bit and it still says the same thing. I had the previous transaction ID saved for the transaction I cleared last evening... I checked it and it said the exact same thing: double spent, unconfirmed. I'm out of the house right now and I'll post the transaction ID's later. help would be appreciated!

[ranochigo]

It's normal. When you send the newer transaction, it uses the same inputs as the older transaction. When blockchain.info sees this, they match the inputs with another transaction and thus lists it as a double spend.

If the miners forget about your older transaction, they will mine your newer transaction. Your older transaction will get forgotten if your newer transaction gets confirmed.

[asiaticus]

thanks for the clarification. I payed a pretty high fee on the new transaction and it still hasn't seemed to come through.

[DannyHamilton]

thanks for the clarification. I payed a pretty high fee on the new transaction and it still hasn't seemed to come through.

Most of the nodes (and miners) on the network saw your first transaction when you sent it.  They added it to their memory pool (a list of unconfirmed transactions that have been seen by a node).  Most nodes and miners will refuse to accept a competing transaction that spends the same bitcoins (often called a "double-spend attempt") while the original transaction is still in their memory pool.

Eventually, if the first transaction doesn't get confirmed, they will remove the original transaction to make room for new transactions. Since Bitcoin Core keeps re-broadcasting the transaction, it will remind them about the new transaction once they've forgotten the old one.  Then once the new transaction is in the memory pool of some miners (or mining pools) your new transaction will have a chance to confirm.

If the old transaction confirms, then the new transaction will be invalid and will be abandoned and forgotten by the entire network.

If the new transaction confirms, then the old transaction will be invalid and will be abandoned and forgotten by the entire network.

It might take a few days for enough nodes to forget the old transaction so that your new transaction can get to some miners (and mining pools). You have no control over the memory pool of other nodes, all you can do is wait.