What can I do with a pending BTC transaction?

Bitcoin is one of the least scalable cryptocurrencies out there. As a result, during times of high activity, the blockchain gets congested, resulting in transactions being stuck. The lower the fee you set in Atomic Wallet, the longer it will take for a transaction to be confirmed.  

All BTC transactions are irreversible once initiated, which is one of the blockchain's core ideas. So, what can you do in a situation where your BTC transaction is stuck? You have a couple of options. 

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Waiting 

First of all, you can wait for the transaction to be confirmed. This may take hours or even days if the network is congested. If the network is really overloaded, your transaction may drop out of the mempool. In this case, it will be effectively canceled. Keep in mind, however, that it may take up to 2-3 weeks. 

In summary, if the network is not really congested and your transaction is stuck because the fee you set was too low, waiting is the best course of action. It might take several hours, but you'll get your BTC and save up on the fees. Or, if the network is overloaded and you are not really in a rush, waiting for the transaction to be dropped out of the mempool might also be a good idea. If you're not in a rush, you can wait for the transaction to be dropped and try to send out your funds later, when the market situation calms down. 

Bumping up the fee with another wallet

BTC blockchain supports a feature known as "Replace by Fee" or RBF. In short, this feature allows you to create a new transaction with the same outputs and inputs. The difference being is that the sender is able to include a higher fee, making the transaction go faster. It is not possible to replace by fee from Atomic Wallet directly, as of yet. What you can do instead is to export your BTC private key into Electrum wallet and bump the transaction from there.

In order to import the BTC private key to Electrum-BTC please follow the steps below: 

  1. Open Atomic Wallet;
  2. Go to the 'Settings', and select the 'Private Keys' tab;

  3. Enter your password, and click on the 'SHOW PRIVATE KEYS' button;
  4. Type 'BTC' in the search bar, and click to copy your BTC private key;
  5. Download Electrum-BTC, install it, and open it; 

  6.  Set up a wallet name and click 'Next'; 
  7. On the next screen select the 'Import Bitcoin addresses or private keys' option and click 'Next';  

  8. Paste the BTC private key you copied from Atomic Wallet and click 'Next;  

  9. Set up a strong password and click 'Next';

  10. You will now see the Electrum-BTC wallet interface with all your transactions (if the key was imported properly). Find the unconfirmed transaction that you need to speed up and click on it with the right mouse button. Select the 'Increase fee' option;

    Note: It may sometimes take a while for your unconfirmed transaction to show up in the Electrum wallet (up to 20+ hours). What usually helps is connecting to other servers. 

    If your transaction doesn't appear in Electrum by default, go to the Network settings by clicking on the green circle in the bottom left corner. Then pick a random node from the list of Connected nodes, right click it and then click 'Use as server". Try it a couple of times and see if the transaction in question appeared. 

  11. Set up a new fee for the transaction. The bigger the fee, the sooner your transaction gets confirmed. Click 'OK';

  12. After a little longer your transaction will be confirmed.    

  1. Open Atomic Wallet;
  2. Tap the 'More' button at the bottom right corner;

  3. Select the 'Security' option;

  4. And then the 'Private keys & Backup' option;

  5. Enter your password, and click on the 'SHOW PRIVATE KEYS' button;
  6. Type 'BTC' in the search bar, and click to copy your BTC private key;
  7. Download Electrum-BTC, install it, and open it; 
  8.  Set up a wallet name and tap 'Next'; 

  9. On the next screen select the 'Import Bitcoin addresses or private keys' option and tap 'Next';  

  10. Paste the BTC private key you copied from Atomic Wallet and tap 'Next;  
  11. Set up a strong password and click 'Next';

  12. You will now see the Electrum-BTC wallet interface with all your transactions (if the key was imported properly). Find the unconfirmed transaction that you need to speed up;

  13. Tap the transaction and then the 'Bump fee' button at the bottom left corner of the screen;

  14. Set up a new fee for the transaction. The bigger the fee, the sooner your transaction gets confirmed. Use the slider for it. Tap 'OK' when you're done;

  15. After a little longer your transaction will be confirmed.

Canceling the transaction with another wallet 

  1. Follow steps 1-9 of the guide above. 
  2. Find your unconfirmed transaction and click on it with the right mouse button and select the 'Cancel (double-spend)' option;

  3. Enter the new fee rate. Remember, that the new fee rate is supposed to be higher than the original fee. Click 'OK' after it's done;

  4. Click 'Sign' in the bottom right corner; 

  5. Enter your password; 

  6. Click 'Broadcast'; 

  7. Upon checking your address on the block explorer, you can find that your initial transaction has now been replaced with a transaction from your address to your address, thus, bringing the funds back to you. Keep in mind, that this transaction, just like any other, will take time to get confirmed on the blockchain. The time will depend on the fee you chose when cancelling the transaction.  

  1. Follow steps 1-12 of the guide above. 
  2. Tap the transaction and then the 'Cancel Tx' button at the bottom of the screen;

  3. Enter the new fee rate. Remember, that the new fee rate is supposed to be higher than the original fee. tap 'OK' after it's done;

  4. Upon checking your address on the block explorer, you can find that your initial transaction has now been replaced with a transaction from your address to your address, thus, bringing the funds back to you. Keep in mind, that this transaction, just like any other, will take time to get confirmed on the blockchain. The time will depend on the fee you chose when canceling the transaction.  

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