Sent payment stuck on unconfirmed for over 12 hours - second time trying to send

[Ctotoro]

Hi there,

So I am a newbie when it comes to using the electrum wallet but I have been using bitcoins regularly for some time now. I decided to download and use the electrum wallet after reading so many positive things online but I feel like I am out of my depths now.

I had no problems buying bit coins and sending them to my electrum wallet but I have spent the last two days trying to send a payment and its stuck on unconfirmed. I have "cancelled" the payment once and it was returned to my wallet some time last night however before I cancelled I increased the fee and left it for a few hours, it didn't help.

I then tried to send the payment again allowing electrum to set the fees 0.3333 mBTC (30. sat/byte) and its stuck on unconfirmed again and I do not understand enough about blockchain or mining to know what the issue is. Im afraid that I have messed up the payment or setting up the wallet as its much more advanced than any other wallet I have used. But I have never had wait times like this before so Im assuming ive done something wrong. Due to my ignorance I don't understand the information given when I look up the transaction on blockchain etc.

The transaction ID is a8d3c56b1eb7f6a6a2af15325c497624b903f4ebf534013169d09092fd316604

If your feel like you can offer any advice please do, help a damsel in distress and I will be forever grateful.

[NeuroticFish]

If your feel like you can offer any advice please do, help a damsel in distress and I will be forever grateful.

As you can see here the current fees are at around 170 sat/vByte, much more than your 30.
If you can wait, there's a good chance the mempool will free in the week-end and your tx will go thru.
If you cannot, use an atomic clock (https://time.is) and at exactly :00 send your tx for free to https://www.viabtc.com/tools/txaccelerator

[Charles-Tim]

As you can see here (https://mempool.space/) the current fees are at around 170 sat/vByte, much more than your 30.

Even, as I tracked the transaction using the txid given above, the fee used is 17.344 sat/vbyte which is still lower than 30 satoshi/vbyte. This will still make the transaction to have less chance to be confirmed. I have tried using ViaBTC but the transaction was not accepted, this is due to many numbers of people using the free acceleratating service of ViaBTC, and also the lower the fee the lower the chance of the free acceleratator to work.

<...>

Your Bitcoin is safe, the reason for for the delay is because you use a low fee for the transaction, and the mempool is congested as you can see from the link NeuroticFish posted above, you will have to wait for the mempool to be less congested. You can try to still often use ViaBTC free acceleratator, if not working, try again and again. But, if the mempool is less congested, your transaction will be confirmed.

The other option which I think is the best if you need the bitcoin fast is to make use of RBF, I tracked the txid now and RBF is enabled, if you still have enough btc to pump the fee on electrum, then increase the fee.

[hosseinimr93]

I had no problems buying bit coins and sending them to my electrum wallet but I have spent the last two days trying to send a payment and its stuck on unconfirmed. I have "cancelled" the payment once and it was returned to my wallet some time last night however before I cancelled I increased the fee and left it for a few hours, it didn't help.

By cancelling the transaction, the only thing you did was waste money.

When you cancel a transaction, actually you replace it with a new one. The replaced transaction spends same inputs to your own address with a higher fee.
Note that the replacing transaction needs to be confirmed as well. So, it's not that you cancel the transaction and make a new one to make the transaction faster. Canceling a transaction and making a new one can make the situation even worse. Because you would have to pay fee for two transactions instead of a single one.

The best thing you can do (as suggested by Charles-Tim) is to increase the fee. To do so, just click on your transaction in "history tab" and select "Increase fee".

Even, as I tracked the transaction using the txid given above, the fee used is 17.344 sat/vbyte which is still lower than 30 satoshi/vbyte.

The transaction fee is 17 satoshi per byte and 30 satoshi per vbyte.

[Ctotoro]

Thank you so much for your reply, I have increased my fee to match the current rate. I feel pretty stupid for missing something has basic as that! I am counting my blessings that I have the electrum wallet that allows me to do that. Can you recommend a simple way to find out what the current bitcoin fee rate for the future? Again thank you so much for the help. I clearly still have a lot to learn. :-)

[Charles-Tim]

that I have the electrum wallet that allows me to do that.

You can use online estimator like https://bitcoinfees.earn.com/,  but using electrum fee estimator is good also and recommendable. On electrum, you will be able to increase the fee so high in a way transaction will have high chance to be included in the next block and be confirmed with 10 minutes average likely. But, if you are not in haste, setting it to average fee is advisable, but the chance to include it in a block will be getting lower as the fee is getting lower.

[Ctotoro]

Thank you all for your replies, i really mean that. I wasn't expecting such a quick response and I am grateful to all of you. I agree about cancelling it, it was a waste of money and this has been a learning curve I won't forget! As I said I have increased the fee and I intend to try a learn more about the bitcoins on the technical side. I have been used to letting websites sites work my fees up until now so I assumed Electrum would do the same, talk about a DOH!!! moment when i read your replies. If any of you have any general advice to avoid this in the future please let me and again thank you so much.

[NeuroticFish]

If any of you have any general advice to avoid this in the future please let me and again thank you so much.

Make your transactions in the week-end, where possible.
Check the fee on the websites. I use https://mempool.spce since it gives a better idea on how congested the mempool is and how long ago there were blocks mined.
Learn patience. If a tx is not urgent and you did pay a pretty good fee, just wait.
Keep RBF flag on, since it's the tiny bit that allows you replace tx when mempool goes crazy.

[Ctotoro]

that I have the electrum wallet that allows me to do that.

You can use online estimator like https://bitcoinfees.earn.com/,  but using electrum fee estimator is good also and recommendable. On electrum, you will be able to increase the fee so high in a way transaction will have high chance to be included in the next block and be confirmed with 10 minutes average likely. But, if you are not in haste, setting it to average fee is advisable, but the chance to include it in a block will be getting lower as the fee is getting lower.

Wow, that site nearly blew my mind! I could not understand it all! I genuinely thought I knew everything I needed to know about using bitcoins but I definitely need to do more research as I said Ive been relying on websites to work everything out for me. I am so grateful to you for taking the time to help. I was not expecting a repose so fast, I have like a million questions I wish I could ask but I don't want to bombard anyone. Also I feel like SUCH dumbo! :-p

[NeuroticFish]

I have like a million questions I wish I could ask but I don't want to bombard anyone.

Search inside the forum for your question and if you don't find a good answer, ask away. If the question is not so much technical, maybe the Beginners and Help would be more suitable for them, but don't be afraid to ask.

Also, your "replace" tx has 3 confirmations now.

[Ctotoro]

WOOOOOOOOOO!!!! Thank you guys so much I can see I'm getting confirmations now. This is awesome, you guys are all legends. I know you might thinking I'm making too much if big deal over this but anxiety pretty badly and when something like this happens its massive trigger so you all have literally lifted a weight off my shoulders. And I am taking everything on board that has been said and will continue to use this site. Maybe one day I'll be able help someone else. 

[Charles-Tim]

Wow, that site nearly blew my mind! I could not understand it all! I genuinely thought I knew everything I needed to know about using bitcoins but I definitely need to do more research as I said Ive been relying on websites to work everything out for me. I am so grateful to you for taking the time to help. I was not expecting a repose so fast, I have like a million questions I wish I could ask but I don't want to bombard anyone. Also I feel like SUCH dumbo! :-p

There is nothing hard about the fee estimation site. Let me explain it a bit for you.



From below to up, you can see the green, brown and red bars, they represent unconfirmed transactions, range of numbers beside like 101-102 are the the fee in satoshi/byte needed for transaction to be confirmed. Transactions with the fee beside the red bars with low fee will not be confirmed in time, while the browns ones still have high chances to be confirmed than the red bar ones. The fee beside the green bar is the ones that have transactions that will be added to the next block, and it starts with the fee range of 101-102 satoshi/byte and higher fee ones. You can also read from below the chart the fee that can make the transaction to be included in the next block.

Also, you can make use of simple fee estimators
https://mempool.space/
https://privacypros.io/tools/bitcoin-fee-estimator/
https://mempool.observer/

But, I do not think this is needed is you use a wallet with a good built-in fee fee estimator like electrum, it is designed in a way to know the transaction fees that can make a transaction to be included in the next block.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

As you can see here the current fees are at around 170 sat/vByte, much more than your 30.

That's crazy, but unfortunately I've seen the network as congested and fees as high as this before, and it's one of the few things I hate about bitcoin.  If you wanted to buy something with it right now, it wouldn't make sense to use bitcoin if you could buy it with fiat.  Almost any other altcoin would function so much better in a time like this.  Ah well.

Come to think of it, with bitcoin being as high as it is now, that 170sats/byte might be as high as I've ever seen the fee (in terms of fiat).  That's one hell of an incentive to hodl.

Beware of acceleration services, as I've never been able to find one that works or a person who won't price-gouge you for the service.  If you google around looking for accelerators, there's a bunch of duds that show up in the first few pages, and I'd say 90% or more of them are just spam websites.

[NeuroticFish]

Beware of acceleration services, as I've never been able to find one that works or a person who won't price-gouge you for the service.  If you google around looking for accelerators, there's a bunch of duds that show up in the first few pages, and I'd say 90% or more of them are just spam websites.

I've used ViaBTC in 2017 for free, I've used it for free in 2021, it works. Of course, you need a bit of patience and luck.
Googling around will get you to re-announcers branded as accelerators or expensive paid services. On the other hand, here on the forum there's at least one thread/account that does the job for free/voluntary tip.

And of course that you don't have to rely on accelerators as ultimate solution. If you read up a little you'll see that I've recommended RBF always on as the solution when nothing else worked and following the fees in order to pick the right one for the actual (speed) needs.

[Abdussamad]

Note that the replacing transaction needs to be confirmed as well. So, it's not that you cancel the transaction and make a new one to make the transaction faster. Canceling a transaction and making a new one can make the situation even worse. Because you would have to pay fee for two transactions instead of a single one.

only the last transaction confirms not the original one. you are basically doing a replace by fee and altering the output address to one in your wallet. you don't  pay for two transactions either.

[Lucius]

You can use online estimator like https://bitcoinfees.earn.com/,  but using electrum fee estimator is good also and recommendable.

That site is definitely one of the worst when it comes to fee recommendations - I think it's written countless times on the forum. I visited that site and their recommendation is as follows "The fastest and cheapest transaction fee is currently 102 satoshis/byte, shown in green at the top.". At the same time I looked at the situation with mempool on this site : https://jochen-hoenicke.de/queue/#0,24h, and if you look at Mempool Size In MB, currently it is enough to pay 40 sat/byte for confirmation in the next block.

[Charles-Tim]

You can use online estimator like https://bitcoinfees.earn.com/,  but using electrum fee estimator is good also and recommendable.

That site is definitely one of the worst when it comes to fee recommendations - I think it's written countless times on the forum. I visited that site and their recommendation is as follows "The fastest and cheapest transaction fee is currently 102 satoshis/byte, shown in green at the top.". At the same time I looked at the situation with mempool on this site : https://jochen-hoenicke.de/queue/#0,24h, and if you look at Mempool Size In MB, currently it is enough to pay 40 sat/byte for confirmation in the next block.

You are not wrong at all, it should not be recommended, since the time this thread was created and up till now, I notice a single feerate is displayed on the site, which truly is 102 satoshi/byte. Normally, I make use of https://mempool.observer/, the feerate is never constant like on https://bitcoinfees.earn.com/ as well. Before even posting this, I can see a fluctuation in feerate from 40 satoshi/byte and 120 satoshi/byte.

[hosseinimr93]

Note that the replacing transaction needs to be confirmed as well. So, it's not that you cancel the transaction and make a new one to make the transaction faster. Canceling a transaction and making a new one can make the situation even worse. Because you would have to pay fee for two transactions instead of a single one.

only the last transaction confirms not the original one. you are basically doing a replace by fee and altering the output address to one in your wallet. you don't  pay for two transactions either.

Yes. Using RBF method, you make the first transaction invalid and you will pay fee only for the new transaction. But this is not what OP did in the first place.

OP didn't increase the fee. He cancelled the first transaction and made a new one.

OP made a transaction from address A to address B and then cancelled the transaction. By cancelling the transaction, he actually replaced that with a new one from address A to address C (his own address).
After that, he made a new transaction from address C to address B.

Both transactions (the one from address A to address C and the one from address C to address B) need to be confirmed.