Bitcoin RBF Carve-Out and Package Relay Explained
How Bitcoin's RBF carve-out rules and package relay interact during contested Lightning channel closes, and why the distinction matters.
№ 002BitcoinBitcoin Compact Blocks and Mempool Divergence Explained
Compact block reconstruction stalls when mempools diverge. This piece traces the exact failure cascade, the 85% overlap threshold, and what miners do about it.
№ 003BitcoinBitcoin Mempool Eviction: When Low-Fee Txs Disappear
Bitcoin's mempool purges low-fee transactions during fee spikes, a deliberate mechanism every sender should understand before broadcasting.
№ 004BitcoinWhy Compact Blocks Can't Compress Unknown Transactions
Compact blocks cut bandwidth by sending transaction IDs, not full data. But that shortcut breaks the moment a peer hasn't seen the transaction before.
№ 005BitcoinBitcoin Fee Estimation: How Wallets Diverge Under Congestion
Same mempool, two wallets, wildly different fee suggestions. The mechanics of Bitcoin fee estimation algorithms, and why they split under congestion.
№ 006BitcoinBitcoin Replace-by-Fee: Full vs Opt-In Rules Explained
Full RBF and opt-in RBF operate differently at the node level, concrete mechanics, fee-rate thresholds, and what miners actually receive in their mempools.
№ 007BitcoinBitcoin Erlay: Peer Selection and Mempool Privacy
Erlay cuts Bitcoin's relay bandwidth by ~84%. The peer selection logic, decided before any transaction data exists, is where the privacy argument lives.
№ 008BitcoinBitcoin Transaction Pinning and Lightning Force-Closes
Transaction pinning can trap Lightning Network force-closes at uncompetitive fee rates, burning timelocks. The mechanics, the stakes, and the fixes in progress.
№ 009BitcoinBitcoin Mempool Replacement Policies Explained
Bitcoin nodes apply different replacement rules to the same transaction. The mechanics, tradeoffs, and practical fixes for a stuck or rejected bump.
№ 010BitcoinBitcoin Anti-Fee-Sniping: Mechanism and Miner Incentives
Anti-fee-sniping uses nLocktime to make block reorgs unprofitable. Learn the exact mechanism, the privacy tradeoff, and why it matters more each halving.
№ 011BitcoinBitcoin Replace-by-Fee: Why Merchants and Devs Clash
Replace-by-Fee lets senders bump stuck transactions, but it breaks zero-confirmation payments. Here's the real mechanic behind the tension.
№ 012BitcoinWhy High Bitcoin Fees Don't Always Mean Faster Confirmation
A higher fee doesn't guarantee a faster Bitcoin confirmation. Here's the exact mechanics of mempool prioritisation, and where the logic breaks down.