Why Did My Bitcoin Transaction Get Stuck?
Did you make a Bitcoin transaction, and it’s been over the estimated 10 minutes of confirmation time, but it’s still pending? Don’t worry. You haven’t lost your Bitcoin; it’s simply stuck in the mempool.
We’ll talk about the mempool in a bit – just keep in mind that your Bitcoin is safe there. The reason your BTC is pending or stuck could be because of the low gas fee you used in processing your transaction.
This happens because the miners who confirm your transaction and add them to the blockchain prioritise transactions based on high gas fees. So, your transaction may be on the queue but is not being chosen to be added to the block because of a low gas fee.
However, a low gas fee is not the only possible reason for your transaction being stuck. It could also be the age, size, and time of the transaction. You could have processed your transaction when the miners were swamped. Or maybe, there are tons of transactions before yours, and you just have to wait your turn.
While in the mempool, your transaction (in extreme cases) may take a day or even some days to confirm. In rarer cases, the transaction may be forgotten, and your BTC returned to your wallet.
Now, let’s talk about the mempool to better understand what goes on in there and how you can navigate the system better.
What You Should Know About The Bitcoin Mempool Congestion
The mempool is the short form of the “memory pool.” Mempool is where pending transactions that have been validated “live” until confirmed on a block.
When you make a Bitcoin transaction, it is broadcasted to miners, after which it is picked up and verified by all the available nodes. Each node has its own mempool built into the system with a default size of 300MB to hold unconfirmed transactions. The nodes then remove the transaction from their mempool when it has been added to a block.
You may wonder why there’s a hold-up if it is this straightforward.
Well, as is with demand and supply, transaction fees can go really high or low, depending on the transaction load to be confirmed.
Nodes have the liberty to set a minimum threshold for their transaction fee. This is where they start to kick out transactions with lower fees from their mempool. Nodes then prioritise higher transaction fees, leading to stuck transactions.
Transaction fees in Bitcoin are not dependent on the amount of BTC but rather the space it will take up on the block. This is why it is charged in satoshis/vBytes. Basically, what you’re paying for is the block space. This is why you need to incentivize the miners to prioritize your transaction on the block.
Sidenote: Satoshis is the minimum unit of Bitcoin, and 1 BTC = 100 million satoshis. While vBytes is Virtual Kilobytes.
How Can I Speed Up My Bitcoin Transaction?
For other reasons like; age, time, and transaction size, you can try sending your BTC at non-peak periods — like the weekends.
However, you may need other alternatives to push your transaction because BTC processes an average of 7 transactions per second and 608,400 daily.
Most traders whose transactions have been held up due to low gas fees resort to some means to accelerate the confirmation time. One of the most popular tools used is Bitcoin Accelerators — the whole point of this blog post.
So, What Is A Bitcoin Accelerator?
As the name suggests, a Bitcoin accelerator helps you hasten your confirmation time despite network congestion or high miners’ fees. Bitcoin accelerators work by rebroadcasting your transaction on the system.
Would you say you’re shocked to learn that miners often run these accelerators? I know I’m not.
So, instead of recalling your transaction, accelerators give it a boost and push them to be confirmed in the following block. Free and paid accelerators are available; just submit your transaction ID for rapid processing.
Individuals and businesses can use accelerators to bypass delays and ensure that transactions are unstuck on the network.
To unstuck your transactions, check out the top 10 free and paid best accelerators you can use today.
The Top 10 Best Bitcoin Accelerators
1. BTC.com
This paid service gives a 75% assurance of confirmation within 1 hour and 98% within 4 hours, regardless of the transaction fee. It is run by one of the world’s biggest mining pools — BTC.com.
This Bitcoin accelerator is transparent about its service charge. They provide an overview of their fee, which is influenced by the standing value of Bitcoin and the block size of the transaction.
BTC.com permits the service charge payment via Bitcoin cash (BCH) and some local payment alternatives, varying across countries.
2. ViaBTC
ViaBTC offers free and paid services. Their paid service shoots your transaction to the top of the list and rebroadcasts to multiple miners. As a result, the chances of your transaction being picked up will be higher. Free service also prioritizes and rebroadcasts your transaction, but not to a large pool of miners.
The free service allows you to accelerate up to 100 transactions per hour. While the paid service grants 1,000 accelerations per hour at an additional charge of 0.0001 BTC/KB.
While using ViaBTC’s paid service, you should note that their fees are proportional to the transaction size and the initial transactions completed.
3. BitAccelerate
This simple app has an impressive sign-up process. You do not need to provide any details for registration, as it preserves users’ privacy. To use this accelerator, you just need to input your transaction ID and click on accelerate. It is a free accelerator and rebroadcasts transactions through 10 nodes to hasten the confirmation time.
BitAccelerate is straightforward. It is also suggested that until your transaction is confirmed, rebroadcast your transaction every 6 hours.
4. ConfirmTX
This innovative Bitcoin accelerator guarantees transaction confirmation in 12 hours or less. ConfirmTX is not entirely free but charges no fee for transactions of 250 bytes or less. However, a flat rate of $5 is paid when the size is larger than 250 bytes.
ConfirmTX states that your transaction has to have a $0.05 transaction fee to be confirmed within 12 hours. Transactions with lesser fees may take 72 hours.
However, if your BTC is not confirmed in 72 hours, you won’t receive a refund but will be credited for future acceleration.
5. 360 BTC Accelerator
360 BTC accelerator differs from others because a mining pool does not operate it but directly rebroadcasts your transactions. This increases the chances of transactions being chosen by miners.
It is an entirely free accelerator with no free option. Its website says that it has confirmed over 1,000 BTC transactions and places no restrictions on the transaction size.
6. BTC Nitro
BTC Nitro offers both standard and premium versions. The free option would rebroadcast your transaction to global nodes to remind them that it is pending and then add it to a queue.
However, the premium option skips all that process and adds your transaction to the next block of one of its partners. With this, you can expect a confirmation in the next hour, though it may take longer if the network is congested. BTC Nitro premium option is $25, which can also be paid in BTC.
Unlike other accelerators, there is a money-back guarantee if your transaction doesn’t go through in 24 hours.
7. BTC Afterburner App
This app uses a transaction system called Child Pays For Parent (CPFP). CPFP acts as a wallet that helps you accelerate your stuck transactions. BTC Afterburner requires paying a $5.99 fee and other minor miner charges for the CPFP service.
8. BTC TX Accelerator
BTC TX Accelerator is free to use and takes care of stuck transactions regardless of how low your gas fee is. If your gas fee is low, or it’s just a peak period & your transaction isn’t moving very fast, you can boost it with BTC TX Accelerator.
9. Binance BTC Transaction Accelerator
It is a paid service requiring users to verify their Binance Pool accounts before using it. Upon entering your transaction ID, it will give you an overview of the price to accelerate your transaction.
After paying the service fee, users proceed to their Binance Pool Business Development managers as VIP-9 users. But, regular users can contact the Binance Pool team via Telegram.
10. BitTools
BitTools is a free Bitcoin accelerator that does not collect personal data for registration. By entering your transaction ID, it rebroadcasts your transaction to about 17 nodes. You can resubmit your ID every 6 hours until your transaction gets confirmed.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Do Bitcoin Accelerators Work?
Bitcoin Accelerators present a tricky situation where you have no way to confirm that your transaction is being prioritized. However, your best bet is to ensure that you use a reliable and trustworthy service to boost your transaction, especially because most accelerators don’t refund you.
How To Rebroadcast Bitcoin Transaction
There are three major ways to rebroadcast your transaction; Replace-by-fee (RBF), Bitcoin Accelerators, and Child Pay For Parent (CPFP).
RBF is when you try to re-send a transaction by increasing the miner’s fee. To do this, you have to use a wallet that supports RBF.
Bitcoin accelerators are third-party tools often run by miners. It requires you to input your transaction ID and rebroadcast your transaction, reminding miners that it needs confirmation.
CPFP works similarly to RBF. However, you have to create a child transaction with a higher miner’s fee to support your unconfirmed transaction. In the mempool, miners must confirm the parent transaction before moving on to the child transaction.
Why Is My Bitcoin Transaction Stuck In The Mempool?
Bitcoin’s growing popularity and use means its 1 MB block size is not as accommodating for the transaction load on the network. So, several reasons can cause your transaction to get stuck in the mempool. Some are:
- Low transaction fees
- Network congestion
- Age, time, and size of the transaction
How Do You Speed Up A Stuck Bitcoin Transaction?
There are several methods to speed up the confirmation time of a transaction. Some of them include:
- Replace By Fee (RBF)
- Child Pays For Parent (CPFP)
- Bitcoin Accelerators
- Liquid Network
- Lightning Network
What Is The Longest Time A Bitcoin Transaction Can Take?
A Bitcoin transaction should take about 10 minutes to complete if things go smoothly. However, the network’s increasingly high demand has bumped up transaction time to any time between 1 hour to over 24 hours.
Wrapping It Up,
There you have it, folks. That’s all you need to know about stuck transactions and how to unstuck them using Bitcoin accelerators. Remember to do your extensive research and check an accelerator’s reviews before committing to using one.
Sometimes, the waters in the crypto world can be muddy, but as you navigate them, please keep safe.
You can skip all the accelerator’s talk if you simply want cash in exchange for your BTC. Just download the Breet App that allows you to get the cash equivalent of your Bitcoin in your local bank account (available in Nigeria or Ghana!) at the juiciest exchange rate.
You’d never need to worry about stuck transactions with Breet; each transaction is easy, fast and seamless! Want to know what that feels like? Go ahead and use Breet to trade your Bitcoin; I can guarantee you’ll be glad.
