The volume of transactions exceeds the available space in the mempool of certain nodes. Low-fee transactions run the risk of lagging.
Given that the hash rate has dropped in the last few days, several of elements have added to the Bitcoin network. The slowdown in mining has led to a delay in transaction confirmation. Some users pay more fees to accelerate their transactions, but many get stuck.
Developer Jameson Lopp said that the volume of pending transactions is saturating many nodes with mempools having a default limit of 300 MB. This high level of congestion has led to an increase in transaction fees. For that reason, low-free transactions run the risk of lagging behind the specialist commented.
Fellow developer Danny Diekroeger later gave details on what Lopp stated. He explained that each of the nodes that comprise the Bitcoin network has its own mempool, whose size depends on its configuration. There are more megabytes in trading volume than available space in the mempool of certain nodes.
A transaction transmitted to the Bitcoin network usually reaches the temporary memory of all nodes. For that reason, people generally refer to the mempool as if it were a single one. Diekroeger described the current state of the mempool as a red sea, regarding the tide of high-fee transfers to confirm.
On October 29th, the average Bitcoin transaction fee was USD 12.52, according to data from Bitinfocharts. Fees have been rising since October 19th, recording an increase of more than 500%. Glassnode reported that the percentage of miners’ revenue from transaction fees recorded an increase of 22.25% on October 27th. That is a level not seen since January 2018.
Congestion on Bitcoin Network Will Decrease
Developer Matt Odell relates the current congestion on the Bitcoin network to the closure of some mining operations in China. On his Twitter account, he says that “China’s rainy season is over. Hydropower prices rise. The hash rate decreases as miners switch to cheaper energy. The activity of the mine decreases until the difficulty adjusts.
Other analysts agree with Odell that the drop of at least 40% in the hash rate relates to the migration of miners from China to other countries in search of cheaper energy.
The former director of mining group F2Pool, Thomas Heller, joined the analysts who have the same theory. He said that the migration of miners from China abroad would have caused at least 22 EH/s to leave the Bitcoin network. These data are inaccurate, but he believes that they give him a rough idea of the current effect of the drop in hash rate.
The reduction of the hash rate will allow miners to see that the difficulty will decrease, even more, Both Odell and Heller suggest. In turn, this will facilitate the process of mining Bitcoin. However, there remain some days until the next difficulty change scheduled for around November 2nd.
By Alexander Salazar
