Although, it will get dropped for good once any of its input is spent by another transaction.
I'm curious to understand what I am missing here.
When sending bitcoins, a wallet will have to pick a UTXO/Coin (
let's say, a $20 bill) that it can spend.
So, since your transaction isn't actually sent yet but "
in the process", if that $20 bill is used to successfully send to another person, your transaction cannot be completed.
Bitcoin works different, it's not like a back account where transactions deduct balance from the sender.
Wallets show a total balance for simplicity that but it uses "
UTXO model" under the hood (
more info).
I am the sender and I can't increase the fee from the wallet of the exchange.
Unfortunately, unlike Electrum, Exchanges are custodial.
It's up to them if they are willing to bump a transaction, but I'm most certain that most custodial services do not do that.
Or wait for it to be able to broadcast again then use CPFP to the transaction to bump its fee (right-click->"Child pays for parent"),
That's what I am most comfortable doing. I will try changing server now and then until the inbound transaction get "picked up" again, and CPFP.
I have a couple of precautionary questions: is it safe to:
- update Electrum
- receive and send other transactions
while I have this 'Local' transaction hanging?
Those are safe to do while having an inbound local transaction.
The only issue I find is when sending while "
spend only confirmed coins" is disabled
because the output of your local transaction may get selected that'll cause the new transaction to be invalid for spending non-existing coin.
If that setting is disabled in "
pay" new transaction dialogue's settings icon, you can temporarily disable the setting or freeze its output in the 'Coins' tab.
The former will prevent you from spending the change from your other unconfirmed transactions.
That local transaction is saved in your wallet file but not in all bitcoin nodes, if you want to keep a backup of it;
you either create a backup of wallet or create a backup the transaction by opening it (
RClick->Details) and use the "
Share" options (
via "save to file" recommended).
You can import that back via "
Tools->Load transaction->From File' and broadcast in case it got totally dropped and deleted as long as its input is still unspent.