Whats the current state of testnet3 vs testnet4?

[nc50lc]

Edit: I requested coins from coinfaucet and it's not working. It's stuck with 0 confirmations. If anyone could confirm if testnet4 is down or something let me know..

It's not down, blocks are just too inconsistent unlike in mainnet.

Any ideas? Do I just send it with no miner fee? or add a custom one?

There's not much transactions in testnet4, you can just set it to 0.1-1sat/vB or set "fallbackfee=0.00001" so you don't have to manually set it whenever estimate is taking too long to work.

[LoyceV]

Edit: I requested coins from coinfaucet and it's not working. It's stuck with 0 confirmations.

That's what I meant when I mentioned most "miners" mine empty blocks on testnet4. This way they're the fastest claiming the block reward.

[athanred]

Transaction Fee: Warning: fee estimation is not currently possible.

I never trusted Bitcoin Core's fee estimation, and always picked my fees manually. Historically, it was the worst fee estimator I saw, so I stopped using it years ago. There is even a topic on Delving, where some people tried to fix it, but they probably didn't deploy it yet, if it doesn't work for you: https://delvingbitcoin.org/t/mempool-based-fee-estimation-on-bitcoin-core/703

Any ideas?

Just look at your own mempool, and see, what fees are needed. Probably "getblocktemplate" will give you a valid block data, collected from your own node, and then, you can simply check, what is the lowest fee, that could be included.

Do I just send it with no miner fee?

Well, if you use testnet4, then you can always disconnect from the network, wait 20 minutes, and then mine any block on your CPU. If all you need is testing things, and not trading coins, then that should be sufficient.

or add a custom one?

I always added a custom one. But also note, that because of CPU blocks, mined every 20 minutes, you will have to wait for the next ASIC block, to see your transaction confirmed. Because testnet4 CPU miners usually include no transactions, to see their blocks propagated faster. It is more profitable to win 50 tBTCs, instead of trying to get for example 50.01 tBTC, and losing everything, just because someone else propagated a block faster, at the same height.

It's stuck with 0 confirmations.

It will confirm, when some ASIC miner will include it. CPU miners have no incentive to include transactions, because it slows down their block propagation. And because everyone keeps an empty block, mined far in advance, only broadcasting time matters for min-difficulty blocks.

If anyone could confirm if testnet4 is down

No, it is up and running. But it was turned into some useless altcoin by traders, and CPU miners, to the point, where everyone uses something else, while waiting for fjahr to release testnet5. Some miners are selling a lot of coins, and there is some trading, but beyond that, most developers actually stopped using testnet4 for anything serious, because they have signet, which they can fully control, or regtest, where they can locally make any chain they want.

[LoyceV]

Well, if you use testnet4, then you can always disconnect from the network, wait 20 minutes, and then mine any block on your CPU. If all you need is testing things, and not trading coins, then that should be sufficient.

Tiny detail: you'll need to wait 2 hours longer because blocks are mined 2 hours into the future already. Or just change your system clock

[BlackHatCoiner]

I never trusted Bitcoin Core's fee estimation, and always picked my fees manually.

One thing that remains a mystery is why Bitcoin Core's fee estimation is so garbage. It's even big mystery than Bitcoin Core not supporting some mnemonic standard for its wallet, and forcing its users store their wallets digitally.

Well, if you use testnet4, then you can always disconnect from the network, wait 20 minutes, and then mine any block on your CPU. If all you need is testing things, and not trading coins, then that should be sufficient.

Tiny detail: you'll need to wait 2 hours longer because blocks are mined 2 hours into the future already. Or just change your system clock

No, you don't have to wait 2 hours, just 20 minutes. The second 20 minutes have passed, a block you mine that is 2 hours into the future becomes valid again.

[LoyceV]

One thing that remains a mystery is why Bitcoin Core's fee estimation is so garbage.

When I look at mempool.space, I expect 0.32 sat/vbyte to be enough to be confirmed within a few blocks. Bitcoin Core tells me I need to just over 1 sat/vbyte for a confirmation within 2 blocks. But if I'd accept 4 hours, the recommendation is still slightly above 1 sat/vbyte. For anything that can take a day up to a week, Bitcoin Core still recommends double 0.32 sat/vbyte.
It's always been terrible indeed.

No, you don't have to wait 2 hours, just 20 minutes. The second 20 minutes have passed, a block you mine that is 2 hours into the future becomes valid again.

That's only if you hack and recompile Bitcoin Core, right?

[TheButterZone]

I just tried testnet4, for the first time of any testnet in my life, because I needed on-demand incoming TX to get an alert for. What I noticed on the side was how long the TXs were staying unconfirmed (well in excess of 20 minutes/the estimated next block time on mempool.space), as I sent everything back to mempool.space's faucet, except the fees that I didn't care about setting correctly.