blockchain.info's fee estimation is garbage. Their wallet is also known to have many problems. I highly recommend that you don't use blockchain.info for your wallet.
I totally agree! In fact, many of these 200,000 unconfirmed transactions are, at least in part, blockchain's screw-up!
Although I'm no BC expert, I'm experienced enough to know that a higher fee will hasten confirmations. But when I went to send my BC (about 40 hours ago) and increased the fee from the default 0.00029832 ($0.51) to 0.001 ($1.73), which produced an "Estimated confirmation time" of "10 minutes", I got a pop-up declaring, in bold and red letters as I recall, that the increase was "not necessary" and by using their recommended default fee my transaction would still have an "Estimated confirmation time: -10 minutes (one block)". And I have the screen images to prove it! So, since I wasn't enough of an expert yet to know that Blockchain's notice was complete and utter BULLSHIT, I took their advice – as did, apparently, tens-of-thousands of others. And now I'm paying for it, literally. The item I wanted to buy (a set of redline Hot Wheels), which I could have easily flipped for an $800-$900 profit, was just FUCKING SOLD TO SOMEONE ELSE!
If there's any silver lining to this colossal cluster fuck, BC has risen from $1,730 to $1,818 during the time it's been held hostage. But God knows how long it's going to take to ever get it back.
