Why its impossible to cancel unconfitmed transaction?

[ray_saeed]

Simple situation. I make a transaction and set to low fee by mistake. Now i need to wait days for processing. Why i cant just cancel it and resubmit with higher fee? Ok, maybe this could create problems for services that dont check conformations on deposits. Another option. Why i cant set higher fee for transaction that already in mempool? As i know there are special wallets that allow to do so. Why this feature avaliable in only several not popular wallets?
As for me, option to make fee higher for mempool transactions is profitable for everyone. Miners will earn more. Recipient will recieve money faster. Sender will be happy. Why not?

[1715156435]

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[1715156435]

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[joniboini]

There is a feature called RBF to bump fees, but this depends on what wallet you're using to make transactions. Most custodial wallets don't apply this feature so you won't be able to bump the fee. The best solution is to use a non-custodial wallet like Electrum (this is popular, unless you define "popular" by having lots of ads on exchanges).

[ray_saeed]

Im using non-custody HD wallets and they dont have this feature

[JohnBitCo]

Simple situation. I make a transaction and set to low fee by mistake. Now i need to wait days for processing. Why i cant just cancel it and resubmit with higher fee? Ok, maybe this could create problems for services that dont check conformations on deposits. Another option. Why i cant set higher fee for transaction that already in mempool? As i know there are special wallets that allow to do so. Why this feature avaliable in only several not popular wallets?
As for me, option to make fee higher for mempool transactions is profitable for everyone. Miners will earn more. Recipient will recieve money faster. Sender will be happy. Why not?

There is no way a transaction which is sent but not  confirmed yet could be cancelled. If this was the case, then people would exploit this for double spending. If you don't want the transaction to get delayed, its best to use the default fee and do not change the fee to too low that it takes many days to confirm.

[DannyHamilton]

Im using non-custody HD wallets and they dont have this feature

The good ones do.

If this is a feature you want, then don't a wallet that doesn't offer it.

[ranochigo]

There is no way a transaction which is sent but not  confirmed yet could be cancelled. If this was the case, then people would exploit this for double spending. If you don't want the transaction to get delayed, its best to use the default fee and do not change the fee to too low that it takes many days to confirm.

You can. If you send a miner another transaction spending the same inputs, the miner can include the transaction into a block that they will mine. The transaction which gets confirmed depends on which miner includes which transactions first. That is how some pushtx website works, that is if they allow you to submit an alternative transaction.

The scenario is with a transaction without opt-in RBF. Without that flag, nodes will not relay your replacement transaction with a higher fee and thus suffers from poor propagation. If you don't have that set, you have two solutions:
1. Child Pay for Parent. By spending one of the outputs with a higher than proportionate fee, miners could include both your "parent" transaction as well as the "child" transactions and thus resulting in you getting a confirmation for both. This only works if you control any of the outputs for that transaction.
2. If the transaction doesn't get mined within a period of time, nodes could drop your transaction and you can create a new transaction with the new transaction having a better propagation. This is dependent on if your wallet   rebroadcasts your transaction or not.

[o_e_l_e_o]

I make a transaction and set to low fee by mistake. Now i need to wait days for processing.

Im using non-custody HD wallets and they dont have this feature

Does your transaction have a change output back to one of your own addresses? If it does, then you can use this change output to perform a child pays for parent transaction to speed up the confirmation of your first transaction, even if your current wallet does not support RBF and you have not enabled it on your unconfirmed transaction. Essentially, you send the unconfirmed coins in your change address to another address in your wallet that you control, and pay a much higher fee for this second transaction. Miners who want to pick up the fee for the second transaction will have to confirm the first transaction at the same time, and so both your transaction will be confirmed in the same block.

If you tell us what wallet you are using we can guide you through this process. If you can share your transaction details, then we can calculate exactly what fee your second transaction should pay.

[SquirrelJulietGarden]

There is a feature called RBF to bump fees, but this depends on what wallet you're using to make transactions. Most custodial wallets don't apply this feature so you won't be able to bump the fee. The best solution is to use a non-custodial wallet like Electrum (this is popular, unless you define "popular" by having lots of ads on exchanges).

With wallet supports Replace By Fee (RBF), you have to turn it on, mark your transaction as RBF at the time you broadcast it initially. If your transaction is RBF, you will be able to bump the fee later. If it is not RBF-transaction (RBF is off), you will not be able to bump the fee later. In the second type of transaction, the last thing to do is Child Pay for Parents.

[TUTORIAL]getting a low-fee transaction unstuck by creating a CPFP with electrum

[fiulpro]

Simple situation. I make a transaction and set to low fee by mistake. Now i need to wait days for processing. Why i cant just cancel it and resubmit with higher fee? Ok, maybe this could create problems for services that dont check conformations on deposits. Another option. Why i cant set higher fee for transaction that already in mempool? As i know there are special wallets that allow to do so. Why this feature avaliable in only several not popular wallets?
As for me, option to make fee higher for mempool transactions is profitable for everyone. Miners will earn more. Recipient will recieve money faster. Sender will be happy. Why not?

I understand what you are talking about personally this happened to me once then I just send them on normal fee. The thing is there are wallets who are going to allow you to change the fee of the transaction once you have actually sent it.
For example in samourai there is such option , you can change the fee to normal or urgent after you did send the transaction and that works wonderfully but not in every case. I don't know why but mine never works. Maybe something with the settings idk but yes it's possible.

There is a feature called RBF to bump fees, but this depends on what wallet you're using to make transactions. Most custodial wallets don't apply this feature so you won't be able to bump the fee. The best solution is to use a non-custodial wallet like Electrum (this is popular, unless you define "popular" by having lots of ads on exchanges).

With wallet supports Replace By Fee (RBF), you have to turn it on, mark your transaction as RBF at the time you broadcast it initially. If your transaction is RBF, you will be able to bump the fee later. If it is not RBF-transaction (RBF is off), you will not be able to bump the fee later. In the second type of transaction, the last thing to do is Child Pay for Parents.

[TUTORIAL]getting a low-fee transaction unstuck by creating a CPFP with electrum

Even after this sometimes it does not work. I did contact the customer care and they just told me that it was simply not possible and therefore I waited for either the transaction to get rejected or either for it to have like 40 confirmations but then again it's good if you have time and don't really care about the current price.

[ranochigo]

Even after this sometimes it does not work. I did contact the customer care and they just told me that it was simply not possible and therefore I waited for either the transaction to get rejected or either for it to have like 40 confirmations but then again it's good if you have time and don't really care about the current price.

It should work. If it doesn't work, don't use that wallet anymore. If you're talking about receiving a transaction from a service, they are responsible to include sufficient fees and replacing the transaction or any other similar measures would be unnecessarily complicated for them. Why do you need to wait for 40 confirmations?

[Fatunad]

Even after this sometimes it does not work. I did contact the customer care and they just told me that it was simply not possible and therefore I waited for either the transaction to get rejected or either for it to have like 40 confirmations but then again it's good if you have time and don't really care about the current price.

It should work. If it doesn't work, don't use that wallet anymore. If you're talking about receiving a transaction from a service, they are responsible to include sufficient fees and replacing the transaction or any other similar measures would be unnecessarily complicated for them. Why do you need to wait for 40 confirmations?

One of the questions i do have in mind too on why he would need up 40 confirmations? for what?  When it comes to fees that had been set out by certain service that you've been using
then it would really be good if they do have that dynamic ones rather than on having static ones which would  really  be resulting into this kind of delay issue due to low fees.
Once its already broadcasted into the network then theres no way on cancelling it out.For unconfirmed then just as mentioned on where you do have that RBF feature
where adding up fee on the transaction  and as said this is only applicable to those non-custodial wallets.

[hatshepsut93]

You can't truly cancel an unconfirmed transaction, because you are submitting it to a decentralized network with thousands of nodes, you'd have to ask all of them to remove this transaction from their mempools, but there's no mechanism for that, because it would probably only create problems. Instead we have the replace by fee feature that was easier and more practical to implement.

[BrewMaster]

you should not confuse cancel with replace. these are two entirely different concepts and first one is impossible while the second one can be easy. (of course you could call the act of replacing the old tx as canceling the old tx but that's not what people usually mean when they say cancel not to mention that it is not technically correct).

when the tx is sent, it remains valid and can be mined as long as it is valid. even if you "replace" it, it remains valid and is never really canceled.
but you can "replace" a transaction with a new one and do it easily if it is marked as RBF. people are already explaining RBF while OP's title asks for "cancellation".

[yhiaali3]

You cannot cancel an unconfirmed transaction once it is broadcasted on the network because it will be recorded in the blockchain and thus there is no possibility to cancel it, but there is a possibility to increase the fees by some wallets such as the Electrium wallet.
As for your other question, why can't you increase the fees over the upper limit in mempool, I think that the upper limit is sufficient to make the transaction fast enough, and this option is not recommended for many users.

[Ryker1]

Well, since you are using a non-custodial wallet and the RBF feature was not applicable in your wallet and once the transaction has been broadcast to the bitcoin network, there's nothing we can do is just wait for the when supposedly proceed and to be confirmed. That is how centralized exchange works, their wallet has a fix fee which has a ridiculous transaction fee. If the Lightning Network will widely use it, this is a great opportunity.

[irixo10]

Blockchain is said to be immutable thus any data cast on it, or any information, transactions sent and/or broadcasted on the blockchain can not be tampered with, that is to say, once a transaction is sent it can not be cancelled and thus the only solution would be to wait till it is confirmed. Also, what causes longer transactions confirmation is low fee, which is why it is good not to set it low but in a case where it is urgent,I think I have come across how to accelerate the transaction but kind of forgotten about it. Nevertheless, another time, don't set low transaction fee, just allow everything to play out and also, I think every wallet developer will add features which they believe will help, so if they are set to add such features then it means they might not have the neccessary expertise or not ready for it.

[SquirrelJulietGarden]

Even after this sometimes it does not work. I did contact the customer care and they just told me that it was simply not possible and therefore I waited for either the transaction to get rejected or either for it to have like 40 confirmations but then again it's good if you have time and don't really care about the current price.

RBF need to be marked (as ON) when you broadcast your transaction first time.

Both RBF and CPFP would work if you use non-custodial wallets. If you use custodial wallets or exchange wallets, it is you bad choice at start and if services reject to support you, you can not blame on them.

With non custodial wallets, you have full control on the wallet you are using: Private key or mnemonic seed, customize your transaction with coin control features (RBF, CPFP) and have better privacy (with Tor) but privacy level depends on different wallets and how you use it.

[o_e_l_e_o]

You cannot cancel an unconfirmed transaction once it is broadcasted on the network because it will be recorded in the blockchain and thus there is no possibility to cancel it

Unconfirmed transactions are not recorded in the blockchain, which is why it is possible to replace them in the first place. Only once they are confirmed are they recorded on the blockchain.

As for your other question, why can't you increase the fees over the upper limit in mempool

You can increase the fees to anything you like. The only upper limit is how much you are willing to pay.

Blockchain is said to be immutable thus any data cast on it, or any information, transactions sent and/or broadcasted on the blockchain can not be tampered with, that is to say, once a transaction is sent it can not be cancelled and thus the only solution would be to wait till it is confirmed.

Again, this is not accurate. Unconfirmed transactions are stored only in each node's mempool and are not record on the blockchain in any way. Transactions which have been sent can effectively be cancelled by replacing them with a transaction which pays a higher fee at any time before they are confirmed (provided they are flagged as RBF). Only once they are confirmed are they recorded on the blockchain.

[Viscore]

I'm using electrum wallet but not familiar with the wallet that you are using, I've tried that one to cancel my transaction but there is no change, it is still on the unconfirmed status.

If the reason you wanted to cancel because you want to add more fees and confirmed faster, of course, it gives benefits to the miners. But I don't think if your non-custodial wallet has that feature. If you can't find it, all you do is wait until it confirmed. I hope it won't be sent to the wrong address, I'm afraid you can't get it back. It sometimes happens, accidentally.

[ray_saeed]

With wallet supports Replace By Fee (RBF), you have to turn it on, mark your transaction as RBF at the time you broadcast it initially.

Oh, I even need this feature enabled before sending. Not convinient at all...
Anyway, my transaction was already processed.

For example in samourai there is such option , you can change the fee to normal or urgent after you did send the transaction and that works wonderfully but not in every case.

Thanks, i will check this wallet