Why are all testnet transactions currently unconfirmed and all faucets empty?

2

what is happening with btc testnet, all transactions are unconfirmed and all faucets are empty?

For an example that is on of my transactions: https://live.blockcypher.com/btc-testnet/tx/d32652489a8131657ad05fba8a57bb075e16b20567c824ad67ded067f6b350c4/

savOFF

Posted 2018-08-31T16:13:21.863

Reputation: 23

I confirm, some of all faucet are empty, i suppose they will reset the testnet ? Never happened since a long time, am I wrong ?Collette Loïc 2018-09-01T11:18:10.927

Answers

2

Last time I checked there were about 10x as many transactions in mempool as fit in a block. This means it can take easily about 3 hours for a particular transaction to confirm, on average. Strangely, increasing the miner fee does not seem to help the situation.

Unfortunately, the only faucet that ever worked for me (https://testnet.manu.backend.hamburg/faucet) is now down for maintenance, but there is no indication that it is "empty".

Hypertable

Posted 2018-08-31T16:13:21.863

Reputation: 68

Hey @Hypertable, thank you for answer. I'll wait and see.savOFF 2018-08-31T16:26:20.187

Hmm it past about 5 hours and still 0 confirmations.savOFF 2018-08-31T19:55:51.233

@savOFF Well my transactions cleared after 3 hours with HIGH miner preference. Yours is only MEDIUM, you might want to try increasing the fee a bit (though even very high fees seem not to guarantee landing you in the next block or two).Hypertable 2018-08-31T20:22:06.210

Yes, after a time I've tried with higher fee and I got success, thank you :)savOFF 2018-09-01T21:29:31.727

0

Testnet has experienced increased amount of transactions from a project called VeriBlock recently. The transactions from faucets are stuck because of low fees. Faucets need to fix their fee estimates. In the meantime if you need testnet BTC you may request some from bitcoin devs, e.g. Jameson Lopp, see his tweet https://twitter.com/lopp/status/1037362274959278081

David Losak

Posted 2018-08-31T16:13:21.863

Reputation: 1

1Welcome to the site. It would be great if you can share more information or links about this. E.g. what is VeriBlock and why would it cause spam on the testnet? Is there evidence that this is the cause? Why is it likely to stop soon? You can edit your answer to add more info.Nate Eldredge 2018-09-04T22:17:36.480

I found this information on the twitter: https://twitter.com/alexbosworth/status/1036312396665516032 - it looks like faucets use too low fees and need to adjust that, see also: https://twitter.com/lopp/status/1037362274959278081

David Losak 2018-09-06T07:44:34.100