Novice user with questions about some stuck/unconfirmed transactions

[dmarcher]

Yesterday I was sent .2469btc that I thought was confirmed (still shows as received), and subsequently sent a little more than half of that in 3 separate transactions to another wallet. Now all three are stuck "sending", the other wallet shows them as unconfirmed, and the remaining balance in the first wallet is unconfirmed. I haven't used multibit in over a year and only infrequently then, so it would be great if someone could tell me if I'm just being a noob or if this is something I should be worried about.

[1715232042]

1715232042

[1715232042]

1715232042

[achow101]

If you are using an old version of Multibit, it is very likely that your transactions paid an insufficient transaction fee. Since you also sent transactions from an unconfirmed transaction, those other transactions cannot confirm until the first one confirms as well.

Please post the txids of the transactions so that we can see what is actually wrong.

[dmarcher]

Thanks for the quick reply! I actually upgraded to 0.5.1 before any of this, but I had the transaction fee set low on the first transaction (moved them up incrementally on the next two), so that's definitely a possibility.

Here are the txids:

afa71d40fe5df016f28d14e29afa7cf0270645cabc338cefef8509c0603894e8

371395d4e4597fa5d9061a3917092022ae2bf0ff8880d714440ca08ae0fa36c1
9d164de6c472712d97f4fa47ab21291d7bcf5b1ac38eb5692dfda6c5dd879449
9d4c84d84066c84bb3f860189c17d2c84e5aa87500d4fdb60ced9b4d4fda628e

[achow101]

afa71d40fe5df016f28d14e29afa7cf0270645cabc338cefef8509c0603894e8

This transaction has confirmed.

371395d4e4597fa5d9061a3917092022ae2bf0ff8880d714440ca08ae0fa36c1

This transaction is unconfirmed. Lets call it transaction #1. It pays an extremely low transaction fee, only 6 sat/byte whereas the recommended transaction fee is 360 sat/byte.

9d164de6c472712d97f4fa47ab21291d7bcf5b1ac38eb5692dfda6c5dd879449

This transaction is also unconfirmed. Lets call it transaction #2. It pays a fairly low transaction fee, only 166 sat/byte. However, it also spends from transaction #1, so it cannot confirm until transaction #1 confirms too.

9d4c84d84066c84bb3f860189c17d2c84e5aa87500d4fdb60ced9b4d4fda628e

This transaction is also unconfirmed. Lets call it transaction #3. It pays a low fee, only 222 sat/byte. However, it also spends from transaction #2 so it cannot confirm until transaction #2 confirms too.

[dmarcher]

Thanks! Why do transactions 2-3 spend from previous transactions instead of the confirmed transaction? And why are the remaining funds in my wallet unconfirmed (aren't they from the one confirmed transaction)? Also, if transaction 1 isn't eventually sent, how long will it take to be returned to my wallet?

[achow101]

Thanks! Why do transactions 2-3 spend from previous transactions instead of the confirmed transaction? And why are the remaining funds in my wallet unconfirmed (aren't they from the one confirmed transaction)?

Transaction 1 spends from the confirmed transaction. The way that Bitcoin works is that outputs must be spent completely, so transaction 1 spends your output from the confirmed transaction and produces a change output which is what transaction 2 spends from.

Also, if transaction 1 isn't eventually sent, how long will it take to be returned to my wallet?

It should be "returned" in a few days. However this does not mean that it will disappear from your wallet.

[dmarcher]

So I don't have anything to worry about, just wait a few more days and not be so cheap next time?

[achow101]

So I don't have anything to worry about, just wait a few more days and not be so cheap next time?

If the transactions are not particularly important, then pretty much.

[dmarcher]

Nope, it's money I'd pretty much forgotten about so a few days isn't a big deal. Thanks a lot for all of your help, much appreciated!