Learning-Bitcoin-from-the-Command-Line/5_1_Resending_a_Transaction_with_RBF.md

4.1: Resending a Transaction with RBF

NOTE: This is a draft in progress, so that I can get some feedback from early reviewers. It is not yet ready for learning.

Sometimes a Bitcoin transaction can get stuck. Usually it's because there wasn't sufficient transaction fee, but it can also be because of a one-time network or software glitch.

Watch for Stuck Transactions

You should always watch to ensure that your transactions go out. bitcoin-cli listunspent will show all of your incoming and outgoing transactions, while bitcoin-cli gettransaction with a txid will show a specific transaction.

The following shows a transaction that has not been put into a block. Note that it has no confirmations.

$ bitcoin-cli gettransaction 0f618e38efe887028a5dd04d0e12241431978b4de32f70308c13a114d7cfcbd2
{
  "amount": -0.84927000,
  "fee": -0.00000400,
  "confirmations": 0,
  "trusted": true,
  "txid": "0f618e38efe887028a5dd04d0e12241431978b4de32f70308c13a114d7cfcbd2",
  "walletconflicts": [
  ],
  "time": 1491588722,
  "timereceived": 1491588722,
  "bip125-replaceable": "no",
  "details": [
    {
      "account": "",
      "address": "n2eMqTT929pb1RDNuqEnxdaLau1rxy3efi",
      "category": "send",
      "amount": -0.84927000,
      "vout": 0,
      "fee": -0.00000400,
      "abandoned": false
    }
  ],
  "hex": "0200000001c6cb05c5212bb7ec14add72883a17f0a68aa399354bc2f7cf02df6e7d68a6937000000006a47304402203f21d769cbf3cf1626ef09bb35d0d8e88efe9f14d097f4b493628e96b2e1c90b0220162ff60701525e70942f5090dc48ec2b2f3b87cd40185351ab316991567f61c50121029045eaa55d283526c723e6d5495d9b3f077b545563f86465aafcd9bfdd50359effffffff0118e20f05000000001976a914e7c1345fc8f87c68170b3aa798a956c2fe6a9eff88ac00000000"
}

A transaction can be considered stuck if it stays in this state for an extended amount of time. Not too many years ago, you could be sure it would go out eventually. But, that's nolonger the case due to the increased usage of the Bitcoin network. Now, if a Bitcoin transaction is stuck for too long, it will eventually drift out of the mempool, and then it will never get placed in a block.

What is the mempool? The Bitcoin mempool (or Memory Pool) is the pool of all the unconfirmed transactions. Miners pull from it

Set Your Transaction Fee

1. Abandon, then rebuild, fulfilling all outputs
2. Use bumpfee