When you make a transaction with Bitcoin, that transaction is sent out into the network and broadcast to all of the nodes. Each node then verifies the transaction (makes sure the person sending the Bitcoin has the Bitcoin they’re trying to send, and that they haven’t already sent it somewhere else), and then they add it to their own personal copy of the blockchain.
Once your transaction has been verified by a node, it will sit in that node’s memory pool (or mempool for short). The mempool is a collection of all of the unconfirmed transactions that have been broadcast to the network.
Miners across the network will then take transactions from the mempool, verify them, and add them into a new block that gets added onto the blockchain.
The amount of time it takes for a transaction to be confirmed depends on a few factors:
-The fee you paid: If you paid a higher fee, your transaction will likely be picked up by miners faster because they will want to maximize their profits by including as many high-fee transactions as possible in each block.
-The current state of the network: If the network is congested (lots of people are making transactions), it may take longer for your transaction to be confirmed because there are more transactions competing for space in each block. The number of unconfirmed transactions can also be seen on sites like Blockchain.com or Block Cypher.
-The number of confirmations you are waiting for: By default, most Bitcoin wallets will wait for six confirmations (or blocks) before considering a transaction fully confirmed. This is because it is very unlikely for a block to be reversed once it has six confirmations.
So why is my Bitcoin transaction taking so long? In most cases, it is simply because you have not paid a high enough fee or because the network is congested. However, if you are waiting for more than six confirmations, it is possible that your transaction is stuck and will never be confirmed.
In this case, you may need to use a Bitcoin transaction accelerator to get your transaction confirmed.