6 Ways to Speed Up a Bitcoin Transaction on the Blockchain + list of Accelerators

 

Although bitcoin is the very first and most popular cryptocurrency, it is significantly inferior to newer competitors in terms of network speed. At the dawn of its development, there were no problems, but when the coin became popular, queues of transactions began to form, confirmed by miners. Since then, most new blockchain projects have been striving to solve precisely the tasks of increasing speed and scalability, so that cryptocurrencies can be used as conveniently as ordinary money.

KEY FINDINGS

There are specialized services such as Binance Acceleration and ViaBTC Transaction Accelerator that will help speed up bitcoin transactions.

The confirmation time of a bitcoin transaction depends on the activity of the network. During periods of high activity, transactions may take longer to process.

Bitcoin miners select transactions to be included in the block based on the byte fee, so an increase in the fee can help the payment be processed faster.

Bitcoin wallets often offer a fee management feature that allows users to choose how much they want to pay to process a transaction.

To speed up the transaction, you can use the Replace-by-Fee (RBF) option, which allows you to resend the same transaction with a higher commission.

Child-Pays-for-Parent (CPFP) is another method of speeding up a bitcoin transaction, in which the recipient can spend unconfirmed coins and add a higher commission.

Optimizing the use of blockchain can help speed up transactions, for example, through the use of SegWit addresses.

The Lightning Network is the second layer of the Bitcoin network that provides instant transactions. It is supported by many exchanges and wallets.

 Why is the transaction taking so long to be confirmed

In order for the payment to pass, it must be checked for validity and confirmed by network nodes (miners). After that, the transaction will be combined into a block with other verified transactions, recorded in the blockchain and can be considered confirmed.

BTC blocks are created every 10 minutes. But this does not mean that the payment is confirmed for 10 minutes, it is usually delayed in the queue for some time, on average up to 1 hour. In addition, for some wallets and exchanges, a transaction is considered valid only after several confirmations (2-6), that is, you need to wait for the creation of several more blocks after it is added to the blockchain.

But the queue of transactions is not built in the order in which they are created, but depending on the commission. Miners receive a financial incentive from each confirmed payment in the form of commissions paid by the sender. Naturally, it is more profitable for miners to confirm transactions with a higher commission first, and the rest are postponed.

How to Speed up Bitcoin Transactions

1 Regulation of commissions

Setting a commission in Atomic Wallet

Many wallets on the market, for example, Atomic Wallet, Blockchain, imToken, etc., allow you to set up a commission when sending cryptocurrency.

By default, the average commission level is set, but if you want to speed up the payment, you can increase it. Lowering it is already dangerous. Excessive savings can lead to the fact that the operation will never be confirmed.

When sending from cryptocurrency exchanges, as a rule, the commission cannot be configured, it is automatically set by the platform at the optimal level, and transactions usually go through without problems. However, there are exceptions, for example, the OKX exchange gives you the opportunity to personally adjust the commission, if necessary.

A service where you can view the optimal commission at the moment: https://bitcoinfees.earn.com /. Green at the bottom indicates the fees at which the payment will be confirmed as quickly as possible.

2Accelerators (accelerators) of transactions

ViaBTC Accelerator

These are external services that can be used to speed up a bitcoin transaction for free online or for payment. They are often launched by miners and have a very simple interface in a couple of clicks. It is enough to insert the hash of the suspended transaction. Next, if the free option is selected, the service will simply move the transaction through the mempool in the hope that some miner will intercept it. But for a certain fee, which serves as a reward to the miner, you can guarantee to speed up the payment.

It is important to understand that there are risks of finding a fraudulent site that simply accepts payment and will do nothing in return.

Examples of accelerators running at the time of writing:

Binance Acceleration (https://pool.binance.com/ru/acceleration)

ViaBTC (https://www.viabtc.com/tools/txaccelerator)

BTC Nitro (https://btcnitro.com/)

BitAccelerate (https://bitaccelerate.com/)

BitTools (https://bittools.net/bitcoin-transaction-accelerator)

Confirmtx (https://confirmtx.org/)

360 Bitcoin Accelerator (https://cryptocurrency360.com/bitcoin-accelerator/)

Among them there are both paid and free options, and those that offer both options at once.

3Replace By Fee (RBF)

Replace-by-fee

Replace By Fee (RBF), or commission replacement, works like this: you replace one version of an unconfirmed transaction with a new version that has a higher commission.

Examples of wallets that support this feature:

Bitcoin Core

Electrum

Trezor (In detail)

Exodus

Trustee

After the replacement, the payment becomes more attractive to miners, which increases the chances of its quick confirmation. However, it is still impossible to guarantee that this transaction will be included in the next block. It is noteworthy that at the same time as the commission update, you can also combine two or more transfers to save money, such an option, for example, is provided by Exodus.

The Replace By Fee function applies to cryptocurrencies Bitcoin and Ethereum.

4Child Pays for Parent (CPFP)

Child Pays for Parent

"The child pays for the parents" is another mechanism for accelerating bitcoin transactions. If the payment was sent with a low commission and therefore is not confirmed, the recipient can create a new transaction by spending the BTC he received in the previous transaction (even if it has not yet been confirmed in the blockchain).

A higher commission is paid from the new transaction, and miners will receive a signal that in order to confirm this second transaction, they must first confirm the first one.

The method can be applied exclusively to Bitcoin. Available in Exodus, Trezor, etc. wallets.

5 Using the Liquid Network

Liquid Network

Liquid Network is a second–level solution for the bitcoin network, which is a sidechain (a side chain, like Polygon for Ethereum) and is focused on accelerating transactions, as well as the rapid confidential creation of stablecoins or other financial instruments.

The fact that the Liquid Network is a sidechain means that BTC can be moved between it and the main chain using a verifiable 1:1 binding.

The main directions of using the Liquid Network:

Acceleration of transactions. Block time = 1 minute, the payment is completed in 2 blocks.

Improved privacy – the transferred amounts are not transferred to third parties.

Facilitating the issuance of new assets, including stablecoins, NFTs.

The Liquid Network uses a special type of L-BTC asset; it is created when BTC is moved to Liquid and destroyed when BTC is withdrawn from it. To work with this network, you need to download the appropriate wallet, one of the simplest options is Blockstream Green.

6using the Lightning Network

Lightning Network

The Lightning Network channel is a transaction mechanism between two parties that uses closed channels for payments.

The bottom line is as follows: two users create a channel between themselves and transfer transactions through it, which are carried out very quickly and cheaply. When all operations are completed, the channel can be closed, and only then information about these operations enters the main network, where transactions are confirmed.

To work with the Lightning Network, you need to choose a wallet that supports this function, for example: Bluewallet, Wallet of Satoshi, Breeze, Zap, Eclair.

FAQ

What does speeding up a Bitcoin transaction mean?

This is the name of the process of increasing the speed of transaction confirmation in the bitcoin network. This can be achieved in various ways, including using transaction accelerators or increasing the transaction fee.

Is it possible to speed up the confirmation of a bitcoin transaction for free?

You can use special accelerators for this purpose.

What are Transaction Accelerators?

These are tools or services that help increase the speed of transaction confirmation by redirecting it to faster or less busy network nodes.

How do transaction accelerators work?

Accelerators retransmit an unconfirmed transaction to the bitcoin network through a mining pool. This increases the probability of its quick confirmation by including it in the next block.

What is a transaction id and how is it used to speed up transactions?

This is a unique identifier that is assigned to each transaction on the bitcoin network. It is used by accelerators to identify a specific payment.

How can I make sure that the transaction does not get stuck?

Set a higher commission or use auxiliary solutions for bitcoin – Liquid Network, Lightning Network.

How do I adjust the commission when sending funds?

It is necessary that the wallet supports this option. As an example, Atomic Wallet. Then, when sending a payment, there will also be a slider or a field on the address and amount input screen where you can enter the desired payment level.

What is an unconfirmed transaction?

This is a transfer that has not yet been included in the block and confirmed by the bitcoin network. It is located in the so-called mempool (queue).

What is Replace-by-Fee?

Replacing an unconfirmed transaction with a new version that has a higher commission. The mechanism is not supported by all wallets.

What is Child Pays for Parent?

Another variant of the mechanism that allows you to push through a transaction. If the payment is not confirmed, the recipient can create a new transaction by spending the BTC received in the previous unconfirmed transaction. At the same time, he pays an increased commission, but the miner, in order to confirm it, must first confirm the previous one that hung up.

What is the Lightning Network?

Transfer of transactions between users via an individual secure channel. Information about their operations is sent to the main network only after the channel is closed.

What are the free ways to speed up Bitcoin transactions?

Accelerators usually offer services for free. You can also try to retransmit the transaction to the network yourself.

What are the paid acceleration solutions?

You can try to "push through" the payment yourself by paying a higher commission. To do this, the wallet must support this option.

Conclusion

The problems of frozen transactions occur periodically, it is only important to know how to solve them correctly. We have described how to speed up bitcoin transactions in various ways, but you also need to take into account the potential risks. For example, Lightning Network channels are periodically hacked, and scammers come across among the accelerators. Anyway, the most reliable and win–win way to avoid hanging is to set an optimal or increased commission. Then the miners will have an incentive to give priority to your payment.

So, the main factors that affect the waiting time are:

The amount of the commission set by the creator of the transaction (the higher, the faster). This is interconnected with other factors, such as the workload of the blockchain, because with a heavy load, users, in order to speed up their transactions, raise the fee higher and higher. Conversely, when there is no heavy load, then the commissions are low.

Network activity. When there is a lot of activity and a lot of transactions on the network, transfers accumulate in a queue – mempool. This often happens during periods of high price volatility – a sharp rise or fall in the exchange rate. At the same time, BTC technically cannot process more than 7 operations per second. And the priority is given to those who are paid the best.

Spam attacks. Hackers can purposefully upload a mempool, creating many transactions with low fees.

Now let's go directly to practical recommendations on how to speed up a payment that is stuck in a mempool.