LoyceV's 0.1 sat/vbyte Electrum Server Adventure

Nevermind, it was probably the Tor Browser proxy

Before the downtime with your server, this has been happening a bunch, not sure if it'll be fixed when it's back up?

Code:

15071.63 | E | asyncio | Task exception was never retrieved
future: <Task finished name='Task-2271' coro=<Interface.get_estimatefee() done, defined at /Users/Username/electrum/electrum/interface.py:1135> exception=RequestTimedOut("request timed out: ('blockchain.estimatefee', [5]) (id: 206)")>
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Users/Username/electrum/electrum/interface.py", line 169, in send_request
    response = await util.wait_for2(
               ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
        super().send_request(*args, **kwargs),
        ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
        timeout)
        ^^^^^^^^
  File "/Users/Username/electrum/electrum/util.py", line 1404, in wait_for2
    return await asyncio.wait_for(fut, timeout)
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/opt/local/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.14/lib/python3.14/asyncio/tasks.py", line 488, in wait_for
    return await fut
           ^^^^^^^^^
  File "/Users/Username/Library/Python/3.14/lib/python/site-packages/aiorpcx/session.py", line 540, in send_request
    return await self._send_concurrent(message, future, 1)
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/Users/Username/Library/Python/3.14/lib/python/site-packages/aiorpcx/session.py", line 511, in _send_concurrent
    async with timeout_after(self.sent_request_timeout):
               ~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/Users/Username/Library/Python/3.14/lib/python/site-packages/aiorpcx/curio.py", line 389, in __aexit__
    raise TaskTimeout(self._secs) from None
aiorpcx.curio.TaskTimeout: task timed out after 45s

The above exception was the direct cause of the following exception:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Users/Username/electrum/electrum/interface.py", line 1144, in get_estimatefee
    res = await self.session.send_request('blockchain.estimatefee', [num_blocks])
          ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/Users/Username/electrum/electrum/interface.py", line 174, in send_request
    raise RequestTimedOut(f'request timed out: {args} (id: {msg_id})') from e
electrum.interface.RequestTimedOut: Network request timed out.

So I asked Gemini Pro...

Is it worth telling the server owner?

Yes, a brief heads-up is worth sending.

Code:

blockchain.estimatefee

queries depend on the server querying its underlying

Code:

bitcoind

node via

Code:

estimatesmartfee

. When that times out after 45 seconds while basic header and balance queries work fine, it usually indicates a server-side node issue:

* Node Restart: If the

Code:

bitcoind

instance behind the server was recently restarted, its fee estimation algorithm loses mempool history and stalls or drops requests until enough blocks pass.
* RPC Thread Exhaustion: The Electrum server (Fulcrum or ElectrumX) might be hitting internal timeout or queue limits when forwarding fee calls to

Code:

bitcoind

under heavy traffic.

Would a newer Electrum version fix this?

The traceback wall would disappear, but the 45-second network timeout would still happen until the server resolves the underlying delay.

Here is why:

* In Electrum 4.5.8: Interface background tasks trigger

Code:

get_estimatefee

without explicit top-level exception suppression in the event loop. When a network request times out,

Code:

aiorpcx

raises a

Code:

TaskTimeout

that floats up as an unretrieved

Code:

asyncio

task exception, dumping the full stack trace to

Code:

stdout

.
* In Newer Electrum Versions: Task management and error logging were refactored. RPC network timeouts are caught gracefully within the session layer, converting the crash wall into a clean, single-line debug log entry while falling back to local static fee estimates.

Applying your

Code:

try...except

patch gives your 4.5.8 installation the exact same resilience that newer Electrum versions have, cleanly swallowing server-side RPC timeouts without interrupting your terminal.

	Author	Topic: LoyceV's 0.1 sat/vbyte Electrum Server Adventure (Read 2696 times)
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