5

I have an old MultiBit wallet (v. 05.16) and within the last month I have experienced delays when transferring bitcoin. Some transfers have been seen by 2 peers and some by 6 peers, but none have gone through.

One of those transactions was f0ecb670ba640eeff7762c63c2e220ec469180feb08305e1af64c271530e8a2e0: Seen by 10 peers. Pending/unconfirmed.

Can you provide any troubleshooting advice? Can I reverse or cancel the transaction?

Murch
  • 75,206
  • 34
  • 186
  • 622
otto
  • 59
  • 1
  • 3
  • Did you attach a sufficient transaction fee? Is there a particular reason why you use outdated software? Can you provide a transaction ID, so one can inspect the details of the transaction? Have you looked around at previous questions? We've had dozens of questions about "unconfirmed transactions" in the past weeks. – Murch Mar 30 '16 at 09:44
  • f0ecb670ba640eeff7762c63c2e220ec469180feb08305e1af64c271530e8a2e: Seen by 10 peers. Pending/unconfirmed. – otto Mar 30 '16 at 11:13
  • Your transactions don't seem to get propagated, at least I could not find this one on either blockexplorer.com, blocktrail.com or blockchain.info. Multibit Classic 5.16 is more than two years old, I would guess that it estimates the fee badly, and thus your transactions probably don't fulfill the minimum relay fee criterion and therefore don't get relayed by the peers that have seen them. Also see I sent bitcoin from MultiBit Classic but they are stuck. You should probably upgrade to a newer version. – Murch Mar 31 '16 at 10:56
  • thanks, I have updated and are now using multibit HD. Will the transfer be reversed/stopped or will it stay forever pending ? – otto Mar 31 '16 at 13:22
  • As suggested in the instructions I linked above, "You can remove the transaction that never propagated by doing a 'Tools | Reset Block chain and Transactions'. ". – Murch Mar 31 '16 at 16:06
  • Did it, and 2 bitcoins came back. Thanks alot, how can I endorse you Murch.. – otto Apr 01 '16 at 11:14

1 Answers1

3

Okay, some observations:

  • MultiBit Classic 5.16 is more than two years old.
  • The transaction you mentioned doesn't appear on either blockexplorer.com, blocktrail.com or blockchain.info. It seems that they didn't get propagated in the network.

The Bitcoin transaction market has evolved in the past two years and due to a higher demand, the transaction fees have become more competitive. I would guess that your old version of MultiBit wouldn't have a good estimation for fees. Therefore, it seems likely that your transactions didn't fulfill the 'minimum relay fee' criterion and didn't get relayed by the peers that did see them.

I found this FAQ that addresses specifically your issue: I sent bitcoin from MultiBit Classic but they are stuck., which provides a similar explanation as one of the most likely reasons.

You should:

  1. Update your software to a more current version to mitigate this issue in the future.
  2. As suggested in the above FAQ: "You can remove the transaction that never propagated by doing a Tools | Reset Block chain and Transactions."

As always, if you don't have a backup of your wallet, you should create one, especially before changing things about your Bitcoin software, but also in general.

Murch
  • 75,206
  • 34
  • 186
  • 622