What do you think was the oldest transaction that cleared with the mempool? \ stacker news ~AskSN

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What do you think was the oldest transaction that cleared with the mempool?

215 sats \ 16 comments \ @Aardvark 1 Feb AskSN

I used to see posts on reddit occasionally of people who picked the lowest fee possible and got their transaction "stuck" on the mempool. I saw many posts on how to fix it, but surely someone had a transaction waiting to be validated thst thought their bitcoin was eternally stuck.

How old do you think the oldest one was?

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169 sats \ 0 replies \ @nullcount 2 Feb

I wrote a python script to crawl Mempool's API in order to find the 'oldest txn'.

I let it run for a couple mins to check the blocks in the last couple days and this is the record so far:

Checking block: 000000000000000000004db7b17592b1a077e2a0bd7047398f3b858099ae6fdc - Height: 881849
New greatest delta: 369.61332175925924 days, TXID: 5b907285cd5b302055bfbcf0e96e89bfb67cf880dc912a12e31b0a809b8411e5

Here's the script: https://pastebin.com/DtmgtAVM

93 sats \ 8 replies \ @freetx 1 Feb

I think official bitcoin node has a config setting to only keep 2 weeks (specified in blocks)....

the sender would initially see a "pending..." message in their client software and then after its removed see a "expired" or maybe "failed" message letting them know to resubmit.

73 sats \ 0 replies \ @OT 1 Feb

If your node relays the transaction to your peers it can stay in the mempool indefinitely.

51 sats \ 4 replies \ @senf 1 Feb

If one single node in the entire world decided to use a different setting for purging old transactions, a valid transaction could be resubmitted to the mempool at any time and make it into a block.

My longest time to confirm was about two months.

14 sats \ 2 replies \ @Aardvark OP 1 Feb

I get so nervous that I fucked up every time I do it that I literally watch the mempool until a block confirms.

2 months would kill me

21 sats \ 1 reply \ @senf 1 Feb

It's good for you, you should try it sometime. 😄

9 sats \ 0 replies \ @Aardvark OP 1 Feb

Dying? I'll take it under consideration 😁

9 sats \ 0 replies \ @freetx 1 Feb

good point

21 sats \ 1 reply \ @Aardvark OP 1 Feb

Interesting. I thought it could just get stuck until it cleared....

You learn something new every day, and usually several times a day on SN

30 sats \ 0 replies \ @freetx 1 Feb

my bitcoin.conf has: mempoolexpiry=336, which is only 2.3 days?! I don't remember setting that.....

0 sats \ 4 replies \ @thecommoner 2 Feb

I've blocked out the memory of just how long I had one stuck for previously....but it was at least two months.....and I really think it was like 6 months about 8 or 9 months ago I think???? I was so "shitting my pants" and like "this is crazy, I did everything right so I wonder just how long this might take" and "wonder how I can speed this up?"

Which also coincided with mempool.space coming out with the testing of "boosting" your transaction....but I was willing to wait it out....it was a great learning experience to just pay the extra sats to ensure you don't get left out of a block for eternity???

42 sats \ 3 replies \ @Aardvark OP 2 Feb

Yea i think my last on chain fee was less than 200 sats.. if i had to wait months I'd lose my mind.

0 sats \ 2 replies \ @senf 2 Feb

Why would it matter if it takes months if you're sending to cold storage where it will stay for years or decades? There are definitely cases where a transaction would need to be faster, like if you're sending it to someone else.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @Aardvark OP 2 Feb

Intellectually you are correct. As someone who has anxiety and is pretty new, it would make me terrified.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @senf 23h

What can go wrong? Sats can't just disappear or get hijacked, they exist at the source or the destination always. If you're on both ends then they're always yours. There's no additional risk* with a transaction sitting in the mempool waiting to get into a block. Nothing bad can happen.

*Technically with most common address types your transaction exposes your public key, which makes a future quantum computer attack more feasible. We are a very, very long time from that being a legit concern. Taproot addresses have bare public keys that are exposed from the moment they receive sats, as an example of why that isn't a thing to worry about at the moment.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @mod 2 Feb

🚩 This post might be more relevant and engaging in the ~mempool or ~bitcoin_Mining territory.