Hi there,
I have a feature request for Bitcoin Core. (I'm not a programmer, so I am unable to contribute technical skills to getting this implemented. I can just type up my feature request here.
)
I recently lost $1 worth of BTC, because one of my transactions got permanently stuck in an "unconfirmed" state. This is because my iOS wallet app (BitWallet) didn't require me to include the required .0001 fee with it. As a result, my transaction never confirmed. To make matters worse, my app doesn't have the ability for me to cancel unconfirmed transactions so I can rebroadcast the transaction with a fee attached. Full details in this thread:
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/bitcoin-is-not-the-answer-for-microtransactions-how-to-rebroadcast-unconfirmed-722880
I would like to express my support of seeing these "Replace By Fee" tools implemented into the Bitcoin Core app. This would help prevent users like myself from having their transactions lost permanently if they forget to attach a fee!
Thanks! 
I'd guess that if your wallet software were smart enough to implement Replace By Fee (and if it was standard on the network), it would probably also be smart to not have caused this situation in the first place. In other words, I think the better option would be to get your wallet's developers to implement warnings when the transaction fee is too low, and also methods to remove stuck transactions, first (not to knock the devs, all things take time to work the bugs out).
If Replace By Fee were standard, no transaction would ever be instant, even very small ones. Some see this as an improvement in security at the expense of convenience and choice, others see the improvement in security to be so minuscule, especially with small transactions, that the cost in convenience makes it not worthwhile (although I'm probably summarizing all this incorrectly).
I tried importing the private keys into another wallet app (MultiBit), but it wouldn't let me create a new transaction because it saw the "unconfirmed" transaction as a valid transaction. So, my "available to spend" BTC balance had already reflected the lower balance, as if the transaction had already gone through.
Have you tried the advice over on
this support page of theirs?
If that doesn't help, here's what I'd eventually consider.
- Transfer the remaining balance (via the Bitcoin network) from your old wallet to one of the new MultiBit addresses. This is just to ensure that you don't lose anything on the off-chance MultiBit didn't like the keys you imported (I really don't think that's the case, I'm just being safe).
- Once that transaction has confirmed, uninstall the old wallet so that it stops trying to broadcast the stuck transaction, wait a day or so, and try the advice on the linked page once again.
At least it was only $1, though.
