The Bitcoin network mempool shrank to its smallest size since mid-October this week after the network'south hash power soared.

The clear mempool meant that that thousands of stuck transactions pending confirmation were included in contempo blocks, leaving very few unconfirmed transactions still outstanding.

The fasten in hash power has been attributed to the re-activation of China-based miners who migrated from Sichuan after the terminate of the province'south rainy season. Bitcoin'due south hash rate increased past 42% over a two day menstruum, November. 9 and x.

A smaller mempool is skillful news for regular Bitcoin users, as it reduces contest amongst fresh transactions to become included in upcoming blocks. Reduced contest in the mempool helps to drive down Bitcoin transaction fees, as miners can potentially include all transactions in the mempool irrespective of their private fee amounts.

Average Bitcoin transaction fees reached a acme of $13.sixteen per transaction on Oct. thirty, when more than 140,000 transactions were pending in the mempool. The influx of new hash power over the weekend allowed Bitcoin blocks to be found faster than the benchmark speed of 10 minutes per cake due to the network's relatively low mining difficulty. This allowed miners to reduce the number of unconfirmed transactions to zero on Nov. 9.

As of this writing, there were approximately vi,000 transactions in the mempool with a median fee of iii satoshis per byte or roughly $0.xi. Some users take reported fees as low as 1 sabbatum/byte for transactions that accept confirmed inside a few hours.

Mining difficulty was expected to increment upon the next aligning to business relationship for the network's increased hash power, which would mean the current respite from loftier fees may exist short lived. However the hash rate is currently volatile and has dropped 37 exahashes per second in the past day.

Bitcoin transaction fees had been comparatively depression through the second half of 2020. During the concluding calendar week of October, the cost of BTC consolidated above the $13,000 mark for the start time since December 2017 — coinciding with a massive increase in transactions beingness sent to the mempool and resulting in a excess of unconfirmed transactions.

With network activity subsiding over the grade of a bullish calendar week, Bitcoin users are being encouraged to take advantage of electric current conditions past performing transactions that may be too expensive to perform with college fees, such equally opening Lightning Network channels and consolidating inputs.