Mempool

How it is used

Each node has its own mempool, so there is no single official one. When the network is busy the mempool fills up, and miners or validators usually pick the transactions that pay higher fees first. People say a transaction is stuck in the mempool; developers watch the mempool to estimate fees.

Example sentences

1. My transaction has been sitting in the mempool for three hours because the fee was too low.

2. Check the mempool before you send; fees are high when it is this full.

Common collocations

• stuck in the mempool
• mempool congestion
• mempool size
• watch the mempool

Related terms

• transactionAny action recorded on a blockchain, such as sending coins from one address to another or calling a smart contract. It must be signed with the sender's private key.
• confirmationProof that a transaction has been included in a block. Each new block added after it counts as one more confirmation, and more confirmations make the transaction harder to reverse.
• minerA person, company or computer that takes part in mining on a proof-of-work blockchain, using hardware and electricity to compete for the right to add new blocks.
• gas feeThe fee paid to the network to process a transaction or run a smart contract, especially on Ethereum and similar chains. It goes up when the network is busy.
• nodeA computer that runs the blockchain software, keeps a copy of the ledger and passes transactions and blocks on to other computers in the network.

More terms: Transactions & Fees

• transaction hash
• block explorer
• gas limit