EEMERGENCY: in mempool congestion period

[Familian]

I've read online in different platforms much about the disadvantages of exchanges and how having your coins saved in there isn't that safe to undertake. And I fraternize with those reasons which am not mistaken that the forum members are all aware of, except for some petty co-newbies.

But something happened yesterday, a sibling's wife was in labour due for delivery but out of certain complications the doctor booked her for a cesarean section for which he was asked to give part payment (an occurrence he never budgeted for). I got a call from him, he explained the situation to me and that what he has wasn't sufficient for the payment and he's sorting for my assistance.  On my end I just had a business expenses two day back that had left my bank account with nothing.

Quickly I decided to transfer a  negligible amount of coins from my self-custodial wallet to an exchange wallet to sell since it was an emergency matter of life. While on the process to do that I now remembered that there's a current congestion in mempool which has left people's transactions delayed for hours and for  some persons it's getting to days. What I did was to visit all of the exchanges account I have to see what's left there. To my amazement the little coins left there were able to amount to something after respective p2p trades.  And that was how I was able to come through for in assistance.

The heart of the lengthy story which I am moved to share is that we should not leave to have some amount of coins in our CEX for quick sell, despite their disadvantageous side, they can actually come in handy in emergency time when there's a mempool congestion like we are experiencing right now. However, make sure what you keeping it's an amount of coins you can literally lose should the unimaginable happen.

[Dunamisx]

The heart of the lengthy story which I am moved to share is that we should not leave to have some amount of coins in our CEX for quick sell, despite their disadvantageous side, they can actually come in handy in emergency time when there's a mempool congestion like we are experiencing right now. However, make sure what you keeping it's an amount of coins you can literally lose should the unimaginable happen.

You're right, in everything that has a disadvantage, there will always be an advantage alongside if we are aware of such or take notice, the use of centralized exchange is not only bad because they are custodial exchange, but we can get the best from them when we are in difficult times like you have mentioned when the mempool is extremely congested and you need to make transaction and exchange to fiat, though some organizations and individuals are accepting bitcoin for payment but we cannot evade the cost of making transaction considering the amount in question and the fee rate to be charged, than when we only have our little amount on CEX for exchange at anytime.

[Sim_card]

The heart of the lengthy story which I am moved to share is that we should not leave to have some amount of coins in our CEX for quick sell, despite their disadvantageous side, they can actually come in handy in emergency time when there's a mempool congestion like we are experiencing right now. However, make sure what you keeping it's an amount of coins you can literally lose should the unimaginable happen.

It is not a good idea to leave coins in an exchange, but since you said that let it be an amount that you can afford to lose. That amount helped you save someone. However, instead of keeping your emergency funds in bitcoin, why don't you keep it in fiat where you will have easy access to reach and it will be more safer with the bank than with exchange. What if bitcoin price experience a heavy dip and the amount in the exchange depreciates below the amount that you bought, you will run at loss if you use it for emergency at that moment. It is good to keep your emergency funds in fiat at not in bitcoin. Bitcoin should be for long term hodli.

[peter0425]

While on the process to do that I now remembered that there's a current congestion in mempool which has left people's transactions delayed for hours and for  some persons it's getting to days.

Well you do have a choice to adjust the fees and you can set it to the highest possible one so that your transaction gets verified almost immediately. I do understand not wanting to pay more than what is necessary but in some cases it has to come to the point.

What I did was to visit all of the exchanges account I have to see what's left there. To my amazement the little coins left there were able to amount to something after respective p2p trades.  And that was how I was able to come through for in assistance.

Some people really just hold their coins which is why the have nothing on an exchange. Maybe this is a sign that we should really try to distribute our coins in different platforms not just in one.

By the way, Congratulations to your brother and his wife! May the baby be healthy.

[Churchillvv]

Perhaps, alot of people have over exaggerated the insecurity of funds on an exchange which have left you to this conclusion but the truth about it is that we (safety conscious minds) do not say you shouldn't have any coins or money in your exchange wallet/account but you should have only a little that you can afford to lose which you also pointed out.

You can keep a little amount of bitcoin in your exchange wallet but where it's not longer advisable is the point you have up to $500 to $1000 worth of bitcoin in an exchange wallet, although you can let it for day to business but for keeping them in a long term is highly discouraged.

One thing you can learn from some investors is the fact that the emergency funds is one of the most important priority, if you had your emergency funds in fiat that could cover for at least 4 to 6 months you wouldn't have been looking for your coins during such situations so you should take emergency funds/reserve funds very serious for the unforeseen circumstances like you just had.

[Taskford]

But something happened yesterday, a sibling's wife was in labour due for delivery but out of certain complications the doctor booked her for a cesarean section for which he was asked to give part payment (an occurrence he never budgeted for). I got a call from him, he explained the situation to me and that what he has wasn't sufficient for the payment and he's sorting for my assistance.  On my end I just had a business expenses two day back that had left my bank account with nothing.

Quickly I decided to transfer a  negligible amount of coins from my self-custodial wallet to an exchange wallet to sell since it was an emergency matter of life. While on the process to do that I now remembered that there's a current congestion in mempool which has left people's transactions delayed for hours and for  some persons it's getting to days. What I did was to visit all of the exchanges account I have to see what's left there. To my amazement the little coins left there were able to amount to something after respective p2p trades.  And that was how I was able to come through for in assistance.

You could able to get less financial pressure if at first place you secure some funds intended for emergency cases. Also we should not put all our money on our investment since we don't know what will happen and there's something like that where network congestion will really happen and it could able cause delays which is so crucial on emergency situations.

That's why hopefully you learn from what you experience and never leave all your funds on your wallet or exchange. Take out something since its good that we are fully prepare on emergency cases happening in our life. Its good that you have money left on your exchange account but sometimes its not advisable to left something from those exchangers since we know hacking and scamming is present so we might lose our money on that incidents. But anyways glad everything fine and there's positive side happen on your story.

[Solosanz]

Or you can just hold some Bitcoin in Lightning network or Liquid network, so you don't have to taking risk for holding coins in centralized exchange.

However, if we're learn about money management, there's no one in this world will ask you to convert all of your money for investment, instead you need to have emergency funds before you want to invest.

[stompix]

Quickly I decided to transfer a  negligible amount of coins from my self-custodial wallet to an exchange wallet to sell since it was an emergency matter of life. While on the process to do that I now remembered that there's a current congestion in mempool which has left people's transactions delayed for hours and for  some persons it's getting to days.

OK, so let me be blunt with this, this whole story never actually happened, right?  
And let me tell you why, the reason is that you don't have a clue how the mempool works and what that congestion is about, also you didn't even check before how much a next block tx will cost you.

So, congestion doesn't mean transactions don't get through, there is no such thing as a delay, transactions get processed constantly, you would have had just to pay the equivalent of 3$ and your tx would have been confirmed in 10 minutes, and there is no such line as you envision!

[bluebit25]

Yep, I agree with OP's point of view in the specific situation mentioned, I myself have also faced pressure when transactions were slow, but it is true that in specific situations we can learn for adaptive preparation. But I think the asset that should be given the most attention is the cash you have. You don't need too much, but you should reserve it for unpredictable situations that can happen. In some ways, pure owners crypto is optional with cex, but there will be other intermediate steps for you to receive the cash. So always be ready for a situation where you need to spend money immediately.

[EL MOHA]

Or you can just hold some Bitcoin in Lightning network or Liquid network, so you don't have to taking risk for holding coins in centralized exchange.

However, if we're learn about money management, there's no one in this world will ask you to convert all of your money for investment, instead you need to have emergency funds before you want to invest.

I will say OP to me exaggerated everything here, the bitcoin network can never be slow when you set the right transaction fee for that’s the hugest priority according to most free aggregators. Your transaction will get in the next block at most 15 minutes, if we go by the amount of time used to get block confirmations for like 2 weeks now.

OP was kind of lacking proper money management as you have said because it is not proper to have all your assets in volatile assets like bitcoin such that for any little emergency you fall back to it. If you feel your fiat currency isn’t stable for you to store your coins you can simply make use of stable coins like USDT and not necessarily have them on an exchange they can me move to your wallet using blockchain that have lower transaction fee like TRX.

Bitcoin is just an alternative to fiat and people need to get this, you don’t need to solemnly rely on it on cases like this due to high transaction fee, save up some emergency fund in fiat and other currencies too

[Maus0728]

In the case that you're in, the high transaction fees wouldn't really matter to you because if they're going to pay that money back, you're going to be able to get all of it back anyway, just mention to them that the borrowed money total has the transaction fee included, they will never complain about it, definitely doubt that there's a possibility that they would contest your collection because they're the one in debt to you and if you can prove it to them, you'd be fine anyway. Maybe you should've made the transaction the normal way if it's an emergency, the money will be needed as soon as possible.

I somewhat agree with that opinion that there should be some money left in an exchange for emergency purposes but in a way, I don't agree with it too because it's an emergency anyway, I don't think that it's worth leaving all of that money there for something that might not happen and at the same time, emergency funds should be huge amounts, I think that you don't want that much amount of money stuck in a hot wallet.

[Stalker22]

Look, I get that people like a dramatic story on the internet, but this one seems a little far-fetched.  First off, if it was truly an emergency situation with someone's life hanging in the balance any normal person would focus on getting funds instantly in whatever way possible - even if it meant selling stuff at a loss or throwing it on a credit.  I mean, hospitals take credit cards, for crying out loud.

Second thing is, you said you were trying to transfer over a tiny, negligible amount of crypto and  call me crazy but that doesnt exactly sound like the amount that would save someone's life or fix a dire emergency.  Maybe Im missing something here.

And lastly, I know Bitcoin network get congested and transactions can take longer than usual during those times, but its not a multi-day wait for basic transactions these days.  Dont tell me you cant afford a few dollars in transaction fees to get your transaction confirmed in the next few blocks.

I dont know, man.  Maybe Im being too harsh, but the pieces just dont seem to add up no matter how I look at them.

[btc78]

Second thing is, you said you were trying to transfer over a tiny, negligible amount of crypto and  call me crazy but that doesnt exactly sound like the amount that would save someone's life or fix a dire emergency.  Maybe Im missing something here.

Labor fees are expensive especially a cesarean procedure. I don’t think it differs per country, it is expensive everywhere you go.

And lastly, I know Bitcoin network get congested and transactions cana cesarean  take longer than usual during those times, but its not a multi-day wait for basic transactions these days.  Dont tell me you cant afford a few dollars in transaction fees to get your transaction confirmed in the next few blocks.

That is also what I was going to say. Since labor fees are expensive, most likely the amount you will be needing is also huge which at that point you are not going to mind the very little transaction fee compared to the money you are going to be getting out.

But if this story is indeed true, if you really use bitcoin for transactions then you will have some of them on an exchange personally I would hate to take out the bitcoin I was holding this is why I should have a separate fund for fiat savings.

[thecodebear]

Aren't fees like $2 right now? What congestion happening right now are you talking about?

Overall point doesn't really make sense. Anytime you need money you can just do a tx to an exchange and sell. It's gonna take way longer to wait for the money to go from exchange to your bank than the time it'll take you to send bitcoin to an exchange (unless you have your keys hidden away somewhere it is really hard to retrieve them from). And if you need money for an emergency it's not gonna matter whether you're paying $2 fee (like it is now) or $30 fee (which it hits on very rare occasions).

[franky1]

firstly. lets handle the medical cost dilemma
when someone needs medical attention there would be no doctor in the world that would tell a pregnant woman in their 9th month to 'just hold it in for a few extra months to save up to cover the cost of birthing a kid'.. if the kid is due, its going to come out and doctors will help, they will just bill the family later and set up a payment plan after the fact.. so not really a "emergency" that requires funding upfront just to have the medical assistance

secondly no one should put every penny of cash into investments.
 they should always have a emergency fund of instant access cash to cover things that cant wait and cant be delayed/paid off over time.. and then invest for things that you dont need instant access cash for 6month->years

thirdly, yes fee's are high and comparing it to third world countries, when the congestion events happen the fees can be multiple weeks of income
(many countries have hourly wage of under $1 so $30+ fee is more then a months income)

also if you do have crypto dont put everything into one lump. split funds up.
dont have funds in an exchange unless you are going to be trading it either to daytrade for profit or thinking of cashing out soon. and if you are going to day trade dont put your whole amount into an exchange nor as a single order

[pooya87]

The heart of the lengthy story which I am moved to share is that we should not leave to have some amount of coins in our CEX for quick sell, despite their disadvantageous side, they can actually come in handy in emergency time when there's a mempool congestion like we are experiencing right now. However, make sure what you keeping it's an amount of coins you can literally lose should the unimaginable happen.

I disagree.
Any coins left in custody of others is as good as lost specially when it is stored on a CEX account that are known for being hacked regularly! This is not a disadvantage, that is an unnecessary risk.

As for the mempool congestion, what you are saying in this topic is wrong. Congestion (or better say the spam attacks) don't make confirmations slower, they make sending transactions more expensive. Which means you have to pay more to get your tx confirmed if you are in a rush like your story here.
That extra cost still doesn't justify taking such a risk as leaving your coins with exchanges.

[OcTradism]

Quickly I decided to transfer a  negligible amount of coins from my self-custodial wallet to an exchange wallet to sell since it was an emergency matter of life.

Did you learn any lesson for yourself from this?

You invested in bitcoin, that is great decision but you did not have any money for emergency.

First of all, you have to make an on chain transaction and accept expensive transaction fee when mempools are congested, it's not necessarily to pay that expensive fee if you have better plan and better capital management.

Secondly you have to sell your bitcoin because of your emergency, and have to sell it at whatever price, you have no choice at that moment. Even have to sell it at lower price than your entry, it's bad in terms of investment view.

Learn from this, and in future you must avoid to use all money for investment in bitcoin. Make sure you have some money, not in bitcoin, to use for emergency.

[Familian]

The heart of the lengthy story which I am moved to share is that we should not leave to have some amount of coins in our CEX for quick sell, despite their disadvantageous side, they can actually come in handy in emergency time when there's a mempool congestion like we are experiencing right now. However, make sure what you keeping it's an amount of coins you can literally lose should the unimaginable happen.

It is not a good idea to leave coins in an exchange, but since you said that let it be an amount that you can afford to lose. That amount helped you save someone. However, instead of keeping your emergency funds in bitcoin, why don't you keep it in fiat where you will have easy access to reach and it will be more safer with the bank than with exchange. What if bitcoin price experience a heavy dip and the amount in the exchange depreciates below the amount that you bought, you will run at loss if you use it for emergency at that moment. It is good to keep your emergency funds in fiat at not in bitcoin. Bitcoin should be for long term hodli.

Not an emergency funds I was hitting on, maybe you didn't read my post well to have misunderstood my position. Bitcoin dipping shouldn't be a thing of worry for acknowledgeable bitcoinists because bitcoin unlike shitcoins will always rise back in price. Bank or exchange what difference does it makes considering that both entities are centralized.

To which do you prefer? That I leave money in bank with how inflation is at the increase or that I leave it in bitcoin in an exchange (since it's with an amount that I can lose).