What Is Bitcoin Mempool And Why It’s Important?

Prior to being included on the blockchain ledger, each block needs to undergo a procedure of mining whereby full nodes associated with bitcoin network solve a complicated maths puzzle and subsequently confirm transactions.

These miners select the block to be mined from a list of unverified transactions and this pool of unconfirmed transactions is known as mempool. The miners then combine a list of the transactions from this list and form a block which is later broadcasted on public ledger once mined.

Yeah, great but it still doesn’t answer our initial question, why the difference in time for confirmation for various transactions? Well, you guessed it right it has to something with the economics behind mining.

How much exactly a miner earns for mining a block?

The miners, for the most part, get a lottery of 12.5 BTC for effectively mining a block on the bitcoin network. In any case, other than this lottery miners likewise get a bonus for endeavors to add a block to the blockchain. This reward relies upon the transaction fees related with the transactions in the block. The higher the transaction fees for transactions in the block larger the bonus amount.

Things being what they are, next question comes is there any approach to bring down the confirmation time for your bitcoin transactions?

Yes, there are few steps you can follow:

First is obvious attract the miners by increasing the fees associated with your transaction. You can check the latest fees trend here at blockchain.info

Second, you can estimate the time it will take for your transaction confirmation by the number of unconfirmed transactions. You can check this here.

The third step is to check the status of current mempool size as it will give you an idea whether to make a transaction right now or not.

So it’s all for this time. Hope you understood the concept of mempool bitcoin and why they are important to know about.