delvingbitcoin

Mempool Based Fee Estimation on Bitcoin Core

Mempool Based Fee Estimation on Bitcoin Core

Original Postby ismaelsadeeq

Posted on: March 25, 2024 08:36 UTC

The discussion revolves around enhancing the fee estimation process in blockchain transactions to mitigate the risks associated with a specific type of attack, known as the selfish mining variant.

The current approach of waiting for a certain period before considering a transaction for fee estimation has been identified as potentially vulnerable. To address this, the suggestion is to implement a mempool-based estimate incorporating the CBlockPolicyEstimator threshold. This method aims to reduce the chances of overestimation significantly, presenting an improvement over the existing system. However, it is acknowledged that this strategy might lead to underestimation issues, where fee bumping could become necessary but possibly result in a suboptimal user experience. Despite this, the trade-off is considered acceptable due to the severity of the attack vector it intends to counteract.

A notable concern with the current state is users' reliance on external services to understand the mempool's condition, which carries a risk of being manipulated to inflate fee estimates artificially. To combat this, the proposal includes introducing a verbose option, allowing users to access detailed information regarding the mempool state directly from their node. This feature would enable users to make more informed decisions when it comes to fee bumping. Additionally, integrating the mempool-based fee estimate with the CBlockPolicyEstimator threshold into wallet operations is proposed as a method to enhance the overall reliability and accuracy of the fee estimation process, making it less susceptible to manipulation while improving user experience in managing transaction fees.