Bitcoin network congestion (even with Bench32 add.). Raise fees if you're hurry!

[tbct_mt2]

Today, I sent Bitcoin using Segwit eligible address (Bench32), with minimum fees.
I often sent my bitcoin out of Electrum with fee option set at minimum, because I don't have reason to hurry too much that put me to increase transaction fees.
Transactions via Bench32 addresses often finished in less than 30 minutes, or even faster.
However, it has not been confirmed fastly like usual today.
My transaction has still been unconfirmed around one hour and a half of hour.

On the other hand, there are more than 8000 unconfirmed transactions on the Bitcoin legacy network.
https://www.blockchain.com/btc/unconfirmed-transactions
To conclude, I would like to announce this current situation for someone who wanted to make transactions via Bench32 addresses today, they should inrease fees much higher than minimum figures if they have urgent needs.

[pawanjain]

The current best transaction rate as per btc.com is 0.00001btc which is 1 Satoshi per byte. The fees is not so high.
Why can't we just use the optimum fees ? Saving a few chunks won't get us a white house.

[alisafidel58]

To conclude, I would like to announce this current situation for someone who wanted to make transactions via Bench32 addresses today, they should inrease fees much higher than minimum figures if they have urgent needs.

Lol, just set it to optimum fee and it will be confirmed in a jiffy. Addressing it to a minimum will really take a few hours if the network is congested.

[Jating]

I agree, I was quite surprised that it was a bit slower today as compare to other days wherein my transactions get through in just 30 minutes to 1 hour. But today, without changing anything on my Electrum it went about 2 hours ++. But I'm good I'm not in a hurry though.

Anyways, everyone can look at https://jochen-hoenicke.de/queue/#0,24h and adjust your fees accordingly.

[Herbert2020]

first of all the number of unconfirmed transactions is not a good unit to look at when you are deciding how much fee you should pay. instead you should look at how much fees they are paying and also how big is the total size of the total number of transactions (10 transactions can fill up a block while 3000 may not even fill it up).

secondly it is Bech not Bench and you are already saving up on a lot of fees by using it because your transaction size is not a lot smaller than if you used the legacy form

[bL4nkcode]

You should at least consider the recommended fee and unconfirmed transactions before sending any transaction(s). , As using segwit will only gives lesser fees, even you're using a segwit native or nested address if the blockchain is congested then you will experience the same as others, considering not all transactions are segwit transaction.

I agree, I was quite surprised that it was a bit slower today as compare to other days wherein my transactions get through in just 30 minutes to 1 hour.

It's just a proof that more and more people do make bitcoin transaction.

[Lucius]

~snip~

It is no surprise that the number of unconfirmed transactions has increased due to the total number of transactions, and the fact that many user like you set very low fees based on previous days. Price of bitcoin is on most exchanges above 4000$, and this is something that always causes an increased number of transactions, people start to trading / moving coins more than when the price is stable.

You should also know that time between blocks is in average 10 minutes, but sometimes time between two blocks can be 30+ minutes and this is normal thing. You can check such statistic on this link : Blocks mined

[Red-Apple]

this is not "congestion" this is a simple and small rise in the number of unconfirmed transactions and someone like you who has been around ever since mid 2017 should already know this!
the "congestion" is what we had in 2017 where the number of unconfirmed transactions were 50k-100k when the usual number under normal circumstances are around 3000-4000.
and more importantly it is "congestion" when it stays that way not when it spikes and then goes back to normal.

[Carlton Banks]

My transaction has still been unconfirmed around one hour and a half of hour.

: \

Blocks are a little slow today, that's all it is.

On the other hand, there are more than 8000 unconfirmed transactions on the Bitcoin legacy network.

You don't know what your're talking about, Bech32 transactions are on the same network as all other Bitcoin transactions

To conclude, I would like to announce this current situation for someone who wanted to make transactions via Bench32 addresses today, they should inrease fees much higher than minimum figures if they have urgent needs.

No, that's wrong. If the network was congested (and right now it's not), bech32 transactions will confirm the same speed as any other transaction.

If you pay sufficient fees, it's fast. If you don't pay sufficient fees, it's slow. It's really really simple.

[dothebeats]

Congestion is different from normal traffic, so the use of the word 'congestion' on your supposed problem is somewhat off. You can always follow the optimum fee at a given moment in time to get your transaction confirmed within the next block if you are in a hurry. Also, the optimum fee varies greatly depending on the time of the day, so there's also that. Bottomline is, your transactions will be prioritized based on the fees you paid for. As simple as that.

[Carlton Banks]

Another point:

OP sounds like "don't use Bech32 when bitcoin is congested"


That's the opposite of the truth. Blocks can be made bigger if it contains segwit transactions, and bech32 is the most space-efficient segwit address type. Bigger blocks will relieve the congestion.

[NeuroticFish]

OP sounds like "don't use Bech32 when bitcoin is congested"

At first I thought that perhaps we started having a bigger % of SegWit transactions (% of the total broadcasted).

My transaction has still been unconfirmed around one hour and a half of hour.

Yesterday there were some 8h when the network was busier than usual and a little bigger fees were "optimal". But that was yesterday, at least on european time zones.

The rule to use the recommended fees and, if in hurry, even bigger ones, is universal. Electrum has options for fee estimation, but I still feel safer to check and set the value myself based on the data from btc.com. This way you have a better chance to avoid surprises.

[tbct_mt2]

Can you give me link to the site, please. Edited: I got the link from @NeuroticFish below.
It is certainly that I can not get richer by saving fees, but I don't have urgent needs, LOL.

Why can't we just use the optimum fees ? Saving a few chunks won't get us a white house.

Confirmed that my transactions yesterday finished after more than three hours.

I agree, I was quite surprised that it was a bit slower today as compare to other days wherein my transactions get through in just 30 minutes to 1 hour. But today, without changing anything on my Electrum it went about 2 hours ++.

Thanks, I added this link to my bookmark for later use (have not known it without your hint).

Anyways, everyone can look at https://jochen-hoenicke.de/queue/#0,24h and adjust your fees accordingly.

You shared a helpful link for me. Thank you.

You should at least consider the recommended fee and unconfirmed transactions before sending any transaction(s).

Agreed, maybe I used incorrect words to call the yesterday situation.
What happened with bitcoin network in 2017 was terrible, transactions wait days or even weeks to be confirmed.

this is not "congestion" this is a simple and small rise in the number of unconfirmed transactions and someone like you who has been around ever since mid 2017 should already know this!

Useful link to check unconfirmed transactions and best transaction fees. Thanks.

The rule to use the recommended fees and, if in hurry, even bigger ones, is universal. Electrum has options for fee estimation, but I still feel safer to check and set the value myself based on the data from btc.com. This way you have a better chance to avoid surprises.

[joniboini]

Useful link to check unconfirmed transactions and best transaction fees. Thanks.

The rule to use the recommended fees and, if in hurry, even bigger ones, is universal. Electrum has options for fee estimation, but I still feel safer to check and set the value myself based on the data from btc.com. This way you have a better chance to avoid surprises.

I think if from the beginning you use Electrum recommended fees, you won't even face this problem at all (depends on what you think 'a problem' is).

I've always use Electrum recommended fees (or sometimes lower or higher, depending on my needs) without checking on other site and so far it's good. Not saying being more careful is bad but if you know the consequences of using low fees then you don't have to panic.

[ralle14]

You shared a helpful link for me. Thank you.

I know you got the links and all but you should avoid using bitcoinfees.earn because they recommend more fees.

Here's a thread that would fill you in about bitcoinfees' high fee recommendation and users comparing different fee estimator against bitcoinfees.

If you are really on a tight budget, rather use the Lightning Network or some Payment processing network for transactions like this, because you will not have to deal with delays, if you opt for minimum fees.  

Good suggestion but it depends on OP's transaction because not everyone uses the Lightning Network.

[Kakmakr]

This will only influence a very small minority of users who prefer to pay the ultimate minimum fee for their transactions to confirm. Most of us use the default "recommended" fee, without any trouble.

If you are really on a tight budget, rather use the Lightning Network or some Payment processing network for transactions like this, because you will not have to deal with delays, if you opt for minimum fees. 

[hugeblack]

Here's a thread that would fill you in about bitcoinfees' high fee recommendation and users comparing different fee estimator against bitcoinfees.

bitcoinfees: The data provided by this site has always been preliminary and may not be entirely correct. It is better to rely on ----> https://jochen-hoenicke.de/queue/#0,24h.

Off-topic reply: Sometimes the time of transmission is the reason for the increase in fees. "There is no direct relationship, but at times people tend to spend more coins, which means a lot of crowded blocks possibilities." This article talks about it ---->Bitcoin Fees Can Be Cheaper Depending on the Timezone .

[magneto]

Like others mentioned, I don't see any abnormal fees at the moment. The recommended fees by electrum is 12.6 sats/byte for within the next block (I'm using a bech32 address).

I think that it is much more likely that you have many inputs/coins which you are sending, which may be contributing to the high fees that you are experiencing.

If you're really concerned that fees will rise drastically in the near future, then perhaps you should consolidate any small dust inputs that you may have right now when fees are still relatively low (I think you can get away with sub-10 sat/byte at the moment), so that when fees are high, you minimise your amount of inputs, and thus reducing the overall fee you have to pay.

[AjithBtc]

Another point:

OP sounds like "don't use Bech32 when bitcoin is congested"


That's the opposite of the truth. Blocks can be made bigger if it contains segwit transactions, and bech32 is the most space-efficient segwit address type. Bigger blocks will relieve the congestion.

True but lets not have this go down the whole rabbithole of fighting over block size again, I think we all agree a second layer protocol is fine for small weird daily transactions (tips, coffees, monthly streaming service fees)

Agreed, and similar scenario prevailed prior to the days of bull run taking the market reach around $20000. That happened before the Bench 32 addition. Yes, and everywhere the need is for small scale transactions than the high volume one.

[pooya87]

Another point:

OP sounds like "don't use Bech32 when bitcoin is congested"


That's the opposite of the truth. Blocks can be made bigger if it contains segwit transactions, and bech32 is the most space-efficient segwit address type. Bigger blocks will relieve the congestion.

True but lets not have this go down the whole rabbithole of fighting over block size again, I think we all agree a second layer protocol is fine for small weird daily transactions (tips, coffees, monthly streaming service fees)

Agreed, and similar scenario prevailed prior to the days of bull run taking the market reach around $20000. That happened before the Bench 32 addition. Yes, and everywhere the need is for small scale transactions than the high volume one.

Well around that time didn't we also have the bcash team spam attacking the network as well to "prove" the need for their fork.

there was a lot of shit going on by that time, it was not jut BCash team spamming bitcoin network. there was the price spike that always increases the number of transactions, it was other altcoins trying to get pumped so they spammed bitcoin (like Dash), it was miners that were speculated to be involved in the spam attack to earn more money, it was a bunch of altcoins which were using bitcoin network to mine their coin by making pointless transactions on bitcoin chain, and a lot more...