Why Bitcoin Mempool Congestion Causes Fee Spikes: Ordinals, Inscriptions, and Runes
Analyze how data inscription protocols consume block weight, spike minimum sat/vB purging thresholds, and impact transaction fees.
How taproot witness data inscriptions fill the 4MB maximum block weight, and timing strategies to submit low-priority transfers during weekend lulls.
1. The Mempool Queue and Purging Limits
The mempool is not a single database; it is an in-memory queue maintained independently by each Bitcoin node. Default nodes allocate 300MB of RAM for their mempools.
When the mempool fills up, nodes evict the lowest-fee transactions and raise their minimum relay fee (purging fee) above the standard 1 sat/vB floor.
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