Blockchain Transaction Fee Adjustment for Stuck Mempool Confirmation
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Solution Overview
Problem
As blockchain technology becomes more prevalent, the increasing number of transactions leads to transaction backlogs in miners' mempools, causing transactions with lower fees to be delayed or stuck, potentially never being confirmed.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a system that prioritizes and accelerates the processing of stuck transactions by adjusting transaction fees, routing them to preferred nodes, and using consensus models to ensure timely inclusion in the blockchain.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If more transactions are processed on the blockchain network, then the throughput and productivity increase, but transaction confirmation delays increase and lower-fee transactions get stuck in the mempool
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by proactively identifying transactions that are at risk of getting stuck based on their fee levels and current mempool conditions. Before these transactions become stuck, the system pre-increases their fees and re-broadcasts them to ensure timely inclusion in blocks, preventing the time loss from occurring in the first place.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements continuous feedback monitoring of mempool conditions, transaction fee levels, and block inclusion rates. This feedback loop enables the system to dynamically adjust transaction fees and re-broadcast timing based on real-time network conditions, optimizing transaction confirmation speed while maintaining high throughput.
2Speed
If transaction fees are increased to prioritize processing, then transaction confirmation speed improves, but the cost to users increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adjusts transaction fees based on real-time mempool conditions, network congestion levels, and the urgency of transaction confirmation. Rather than using fixed high fees, the system optimizes fee levels continuously, increasing fees only when necessary to achieve timely confirmation, thereby minimizing user costs while maintaining speed.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the fee parameter adaptively based on monitoring data. When transactions are confirmed to be progressing normally, fees remain at original levels. When stagnation is detected, fees are increased to a sufficient level to ensure inclusion, then adjusted back down after confirmation, optimizing the balance between speed and cost.
3Productivity
If the mempool acts as a transaction queue with fee-based prioritization, then high-fee transactions are processed efficiently, but low-fee transactions remain stuck for hours or days
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables low-fee transactions to self-correct by automatically detecting when they are at risk of getting stuck and autonomously increasing their fees and re-broadcasting them. This self-service mechanism allows transactions to rescue themselves without requiring user intervention or permanent high fee commitments, improving reliability while maintaining the fee-based prioritization system.
Solution Approach 2:
The system acts as an intermediary between the mempool's fee-based prioritization mechanism and low-fee transactions. It monitors the status of low-fee transactions and intervenes by adjusting fees and re-broadcasting when necessary, mediating between the efficiency requirements of the prioritization system and the reliability needs of low-fee transactions.
Data Source
AI summary
The present disclosure provides techniques for efficient blockchain transaction processing. In one embodiment, a computer system broadcasts a first transaction to a blockchain network for addition to a block in a blockchain. The computer system may broadcast a second transaction to the blockchain network for addition to the block in the blockchain, where the second transaction descends from the first transaction and includes a placeholder fee. The computer system monitors and determines that the first transaction has not been confirmed to the block in the blockchain for a duration of time (e.g., stuck in the mempool). In response to determining that the first transaction is stuck, the computer system may transmit a request to replace the placeholder fee with a transaction fee that is sufficiently high to cause the first transaction and the second transaction to be confirmed to a block in the blockchain, thereby unsticking the first transaction.