If there is a long backlog of transactions to verify and some have a low enough gas price that the miners choose higher gas priced transactions, is it
possible for the low gas transactions to never be picked up due to the long backlog? Any "new" transactions with higher gas prices will be picked up again and again leaving the lower ones to be in the "air"
Im also assuming that under normal transaction levels the lower gased transactions get done because the miners can keep up with the volume. So my assumption only holds for unusually high volume.
If this is the case in high volume times, what eventually happens to the unverified transactions? Are there time limits on these delayed transactions, and if so do the coins get returned to the original source? Can these coins theoretically be tied up indefinitely?
Im new to all of this and just trying to understand why a transaction of mine is currently at 50 hours. Im not asking for help with the specific transaction, just trying to learn.
thanks