Homework on Mempool - Questions

Blockchain and Bitcoin 101
#2590
  1. Each node has a list of UTXOS - those UTXOS are listed in the mempool.
  2. The mempool will grow in size and transaction fees might increase.
  3. Transaction fees will go up.
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#2591

  1. Where all the unconfirmed transactions are stored.

  2. It takes longer for a transaction to be confirmed and the pool grows.

  3. They will become higher if you want to be confirmed first.

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#2592

Miners will prioritize transactions with the most fee (Satoshis per byte) the most space in term of bytes are the inputs, not the outputs. To unlock an utxo and be able to move it to other addresses, you need to provide a digital signature

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#2593

You don’t have to pay more fee. If you make a transaction to yourself, you can afford to wait longer to get confirmed on the blockchain. So if your transaction is not urgent, you better set a lower fee. Worst case scenario is when the network is so busy that your transaction simply won’t happen and you need to make it again. Most nodes keep unconfirmed transactions for 2 weeks

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#2594

  1. The mempool is a list of unconfirmed transactions where each full node maintain for it self, after being confirmed it by a node, is picked up by a Bitcoin miner and inserted into a block.

  2. The capacity of the mempool gets bigger and waiting time will be longer.

  3. After the Mempool reaches full capacity, the nodes will start prioritizing transactions by setting up a minimal higher fee.

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#2595

What is the mempool?
The mempool, or memory pool, is each node’s local storage facility that tracks unconfirmed transactions. A bitcoin transaction isn’t confirmed until a miner has added a block (containing the transaction) to the blockchain. The miner will choose transactions from their own or other mempools, based on fees. Adding blocks takes a little time so naturally mempools will contain more or less transactions based on bitcoin/network activity.

What happens if the miners can’t keep up with the rate of the new transaction?
The mempools will grow in size and fees will rise as users compete to have their transactions added to the blockchain. High fees (per byte) will get the attention of miners who will always try to maximise the financial value of any block they process.

How does a growing mempool effect transaction fees?
Fees rise as users compete to have their transactions added to the blockchain. High fees (per byte) will get the attention of miners who will always try to maximise the financial value of any block they process.

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#2596
  1. The mempool is the holding area for all of the pending transactions that have been verified by a node. So each node has its own mempool. Every time a transaction is processed, it waits in the mempool until it is processed by a miner.
  2. If minors can’t keep up with the rate of new transactions, then mempools will experience transaction traffic jams, which result in slower confirmation times and higher fees.
  3. If the mempool size gets too close to the RAM capacity of its node, then the node sets up a minimal fee threshold. Transactions with fees lower than the threshold are removed, and only new transactions with large enough fees are allowed access.
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#2597

  1. The mempool is full of pending TX on each node.

  2. If miners can’t keep up the pool backs up.

  3. The growing mempool will cause fees to increase. The larger the fees the more chance your transaction will be picked up. It is for this reason that BTC was not created for small to medium size transactions.

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#2598

A mempool is a list of unconfirmed transactions not UTXOs. :slight_smile:

#2599

So whats going to happen in the future when there is a bunch of UTXO “dust” that cant even cover the tx fee? Would it cost me more to send a transaction the more UTXOs I have?

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#2600

  1. A mempool is a shared record of unconfirmed transactions on each node in the network.

  2. If miners can keep up with the rate of new transactions, the mempool will grow.

  3. A growing mempool will cause transaction fees to increase.

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#2601

  1. What is the mempool?
    When a transaction is structured by a wallet it is broadcast to the network. The network consists of Nodes (computers with copy of BTC Blockchain). The nodes receive this transaction and hold it in their computer/server memory and this area is a data structure of unconfirmed transactions. Miners will come and select transactions from this Mempool and choose the transaction that will give the Miner the higher fee.

  2. What happens if the miners can’t keep up with the rate of the new transaction?
    When Miners cannot keep up with the transactions coming into the Mempool the transaction fee to add the transaction in the new block increases. And the Mempool will grow as the backlog will grow of unconfirmed transactions.

  3. How does a growing mempool effect transaction fees?
    Growing Mempool will mean the transactions fees will be higher to get the transaction confirmed and added to the next block being created.

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#2602
  • What is the mempool?

It is a list with unconfirmed transactions that every node or miner has.

  • What happens if the miners can’t keep up with the rate of the new transaction?

only the tx with the highest fee are put in the block and the rest of tx are put on the queue.

  • How does a growing mempool effect transaction fees?

it increases the tx fee

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#2603

Yes, you can consolidate many small utxo’s to 1 big utxo to 1 of your own addresses or to pay someone and get change back in 1 bigger utxo.

And yes, the more utxo’s you have to use, the bigger the transaction will be in terms of bytes. Transaction fees are specified in sats per byte, so it will cost you more fee.

But if you want to consolidate many utxo’s together to one of your own addresses, you can better set the lowest amount of fee (1sat/vbyte) because it’s not urgent and in case the network is to busy, the worst thing that can happen is that your transaction will get stuck unconfirmed for 2 weeks, and then get lost. So you need to do it again.
You can also use RBF in some wallets. This is an option to boost up the fee in case it doesn’t get confirmed fast enough for you.

Andreas made a nice Twitter thread about transaction fees and the mempool when the network is very busy.

https://twitter.com/aantonop/status/1333500352432259073?s=19

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#2604
  1. The mempool is a list of non-confirmed transactions that are waiting for a miner to be added to a new block. Every node has a copy of it, but not every copy is exact the same!
  2. The mempool will grow in size
  3. The transaction fees will rise
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#2605
  1. The mempool is a list of unconfirmed transactions.
  2. And 3. The number of unconfirmed transactions in the mempool increases and the transactions fees increase to.
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#2606
  1. Collective place for unconfirmed transactions.
  2. Mempool will grow
  3. They will get higher
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#2607
  1. The mempool Contains all unconfirmed tx’s. When the tx’s are included into a block by miners the tx get’s the confirmed status from the blockchain and disappaers from the mempool.
  2. The mempool Will get bigger.
  3. Fee’s Will go up because the higher the fee is the more likely it is to get into the next block.
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#2608
  1. The mempool is a collection of uncomfirmed transactions
  2. The mempool will begin to fill up.
  3. With a growing Mempool fees and transaction times will increase, as there is more competition to be placed in the next block
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#2609

What is the mempool?

The mempool is a database in every node that contains the list of unconfirmed transactions

What happens if the miners can’t keep up with the rate of the new transaction?

The mempool will get bigger, with higher fees. The transactions with lower fees will remain unconfirmed until the average fee may arrive that its amount in a future.

How does a growing mempool effect transaction fees?

Fees will get bigger, since miners will take always the transaction with the highest fees first.

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