Several weeks ago I asked same question. I created my private chain with a very low difficulty (for implementing some tests) and when testing the network and creating transactions they get lost some how!!! Here's a scenario with images attached:
1. I created two node s on same machine, mined one of them till my custom coinbase maturity (I changed it to 10 blocks).
2. I made a transaction from first node to second node (2 btcs), then mined it with second node using command "generate 1". Till this stage it worked fine. See the image for results (first node is in the left and second node is in the right):
3.In this stage no matter from which side I create transactions. It gets stuck in memory pool. No matter how hard i try to mine it, no peer would add it to the chain. I created another transaction from first node to second node. See the picture.
I don't this the problem is with fee because with enough fee I still have the problem.
The link to my repository is :
https://github.com/chameleon1239/bitcoin.gitAny one has any idea? I didn't change the source code for confirming transactions or memory pool.