Homework on Mempool - Questions

[MaxiRindle]

1. The mempool is a list of all the unconfirmed Tx each node has.
2. The mempool grows in size.
3. Txs fees will increase as the mempool grows

[Alko89]

@MattWill

Firstly, is it hypothetically possible to send a transaction with such a low fee set, that it will simply be ignored and never included into a block?

Yes, in that case the tx will eventually be removed from the mempool, nodes usually hold these txs for 14 days after that time they drop the tx. This is the default setting and can be changed though.

@MattWill

Secondly, what determines the Satoshi per Bite rate? Say I wanted to send 1000BTC. Would I be able to send it in a way where the Satoshi per Bite rate is small? Or are the variables that determine this simply out of my control?

Its the ratio between the fee and the size of tx in Bytes. This depends on the complexity of the tx (how many inputs/output, the tx has, is it a segwit tx and other factors as well). Technically you could construct a tx with a very tiny fee. Here is one for 5 sat/B that I made recently:
https://blockstream.info/tx/29e4b4a7d035b8d53187ffc5597b6755b3af6e9aac2e7f5d7086159898508a37

[Acex13]

1. What is the mempool? The mempool is a list that all nodes (including mining nodes) on the network hold, which is updated with each verified bitcoin TX that occurs. These TXs are selected by the mining nodes (based on fee amount) to be included in the next block on the chain.

2. What happens if the miners can’t keep up with the rate of the new transaction?
   A backlog will occur, slowing processing time of some individual TXs that are not prioritized by mining nodes.

3. How does a growing mempool effect transaction fees?
   Fees increase to push throughput

[Jan90]

1. The mempool is a list of unconfirmed transactions waiting for a miner to mine and add them to the next block.
2. The mempool grows with pending transaction. Transaction times can be longer and fees can also increase.
3. Fees will go up and because transactions will cost more, miners can choose to mine transactions with the higher fees first.

[Adzio]

1. Mempool is a list of unconfirmed transactions.
2. The mempool grows.
3. Fees will increase.

[mjbam93]

1. It is a list of unconfirmed transactions.
2. The mempool gets bigger. It will take longer for new tx to get confirmed.
3. Tx fees will increase. There will be more competition.

[evadauk]

1. What is the mempool?

Each node has a mempool and mempool contains the list of unconfirmed transactions.

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

Transactions will stay in the mempool until its confirmed & transaction fees may increase.

3. How does a growing mempool effect transaction fees?

Transaction fees will get higher as when transacting your wallet would suggest the fee that would get transaction confirmed and put in a block as soon as. So if mempool over loaded, transaction fees would get higher too.

[Zaan]

1. Mempool is a place where unconfirmed transactions are waiting to be picked by miner and to be put on a block
2. If miners can’t keep up with the rate of new transactions mempool grows
3. Growing mempool increases the fees for transaction

[DigitalDad]

1. What is the mempool?
   It is the waiting room for unconfirmed transactions.

2. What happens if the miners can’t keep up with the rate of the new transaction?
   The size of the mempool will grow.

3. How does a growing mempool effect transaction fees?
   Well, miners will pick up those unconfirmed transactions with the higher fees.

My question for the community – what happens if the supply of transactions organically grows due to a growing network? For example, if there are 100,000 active bitcoin addresses making transactions, the supply of transactions would be much smaller than in a community of 1,000,000 active bitcoin addresses. If the size of the block is relatively the same (~1MB) and if the amount of time to mine it is relatively the same (10 minutes), wouldn’t that put a lid on the ability to transact? Even if all participants raise their fees to get in the next block, you still have an elevated supply of transactions that the miners can’t keep up with, right?

[ludwiggles]

1. What is the mempool?
   Each node has a structure of data called a mempool where unconfirmed, but credible transactions are sent to wait until possibly being added to a block by a miner.

2. What happens if the miners can’t keep up with the rate of the new transaction?
   The mempool grows larger due to the rate of more transactions being added to the mempool than are exiting and added to blocks.

3. How does a growing mempool effect transaction fees?
   Because miners are incentivized by receiving the transaction fees in return for their service, they tend to choose the transaction’s with the highest pay-offs/fees. Transactions are very competitive in a mempool as is, especially if the mempool keeps growing.

[Axiom]

1. The mempool is a record of unconfirmed transactions.

2. The mempool will increase in size, transactions will take longer, and fees increase.

3. Miners like to make money and so will choose larger fee transactions first. Fees will increase to get to the front of the line.

[Chazzman22]

1. Mempool is a data structure that holds unconfirmed transactions waiting for a miner to do the work to confirm the transaction.
   2.Transaction times increase as the mempool grows.
2. the higher your transaction fee the quicker the miners might do your transaction first if it is a large mempool.

[drala.lungta]

1. What is the mempool?
   Unconfirmed transactions goes into mempool.

2. What happens if the miners can’t keep up with the rate of the new transaction?
   Then the mempool will grow in size unless you increase the transaction fee.

3. How does a growing mempool effect transaction fees?
   Increases competition for miner to pick up a TX and raises fees.

[benj]

1. What is the mempool?

The mempool is the storage location of unconfirmed transactions on nodes. Their local copy of the mempool may vary a little depending on how transactions are distributed, but eventually they will align.

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

More transactions are saved in the mempool to await mining and the size of the mempool grows.

3. How does a growing mempool effect transaction fees?

It pushes them up.

[sastre12]

1.The mempool is a waiting room, where the unconfirmed transactions waits to get picked up by a miner.
2. The waiting list simply grows and the unconfirmed transactions takes longer…
3. Transaction fees goes up, because there is more competition to get included in the next blocks. Therefore the miners can choose to mine the transactions with higher fees first.

[Coffee_and_Crypto]

1. Mempool is the list of all unconfirmed transactions that have been broadcast to the network. IE the transaction waiting list.
2. The number of transactions in the mempool increase
   3.The larger the mempool the higher the transaction fees

[Nash]

1. What is the mempool?

Record of all pending transactions

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

Backlog builds up and mining fees go up

3. How does a growing mempool effect transaction fees?

Transaction fees go up and higher fees transaction are picked first

[JoshWesson]

1. The mempool is a place where unconfirmed transactions are stored, waiting for miners to append them to the blockchain, after being verified by all the nodes in the network.

2. Then the mempool grows larger and transaction times increase.

3. Transaction fees increase, as miners will prioritise transaction that offer a higher fee.

[Suat_S]

1. Memberpool is the place where the pending transactions are kept until a miner picks it and appends it to a blockchain.

2. In that case, the mempool grows and the transaction speed is affected negatively.

3. A growing mempool increases the transaction fees as the miners would have many options and pick the transactions with high transaction fees.

[CTHoyle]

Homework on Mempool - Questions

1. What is the mempool?

The mempool is a list of all unconfirmed transactions.

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

Transaction times increase which will then likely increase fees.

3. How does a growing mempool effect transaction fees?

It will increase fees. People will have to pay more in fees to hopefully have their transaction confirmed on the blockchain quicker.