From Half a Million to 27K: Bitcoin’s Transaction Backlog Set to Clear for First Time in Four Months

It’s been a captivating four months since Bitcoin’s mempool last emptied, and with the recent downturn in Ordinal inscriptions this month, the backlog now holds a mere 27,210 unconfirmed transactions.

Bitcoin’s Transaction Backlog Nears End as Ordinal Inscriptions Wane

A little over a fortnight ago, the clutter in Bitcoin’s mempool was quite pronounced, boasting over 500,000 unconfirmed transactions awaiting miner confirmation. However, a notable decline in Ordinal inscription minting three days ago saw bitcoin miners significantly whittle down the number of unconfirmed transactions to 153,000.

Fast forward to today, October 3, 2023, and the scenario has dramatically improved; the miners have managed to further slash the figure to 27,210, hinting that the backlog may soon be a thing of the past. Flashback to April 22, 2023, and the last time the mempool was in this less-clogged state, a substantial uptick in Ordinal inscriptions was observed.

Bitcoin mempool on October 3, 2023, at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time.

Fast forward to this week, and the total inscriptions minted on the Bitcoin blockchain have triumphantly crossed the 35 million threshold, albeit the momentum has notably decelerated. Just three days ago, Bitcoin.com News shed light on this downtrend, highlighting that daily inscriptions haven’t soared past the 100K benchmark.

On October 1, a total of approximately 87,180 inscriptions were etched onto the distributed ledger, with the subsequent day witnessing a further dip to 50,176 inscriptions. With miners plowing through the backlog of unconfirmed transactions, a mere 21 blocks are now needed to obliterate the pending transactions.

Given the current pace, and should the inscriptions continue to tread low, the unconfirmed transactions stand a chance to be obliterated within the next day or so. According to mempool.space, a modest fee of $0.08 per transaction is sufficient to expedite a transfer into a mined block.

Concurrently, Bitinfocharts.com displays that a median transaction necessitates 0.000036 BTC or $0.995 per transfer. The recent data, as of block height 810,473, further shows that the average block time is clocked at eight minutes and roughly 35 seconds. Approximately 41 blocks prior, the network’s difficulty increased by 0.35% to 57.32 trillion.

What do you think about miners clearing the transaction backlog? Share your thoughts and opinions about this subject in the comments section below.

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