A US bank regulator says it’s shutting down a “legal loophole” that’s costing customers $5 billion in fees per year. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) says a new rule will force large banks to either limit overdraft fees to $5, align them to actual costs and losses, or treat overdraft loans like other credit […]
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Ethereum price showed strength in September, but data suggests holding above $2,600 will be a challenge.
Ether (ETH) is trying to maintain its position above the $2,600 resistance level following a 15.1% gain between Sept. 18 and Sept. 23. Recent macroeconomic data indicating a weakening economy has fueled a rally in the stock market, increasing demand for short-term government bonds. In this context, traders are betting that the upcoming $2.78 billion monthly Ether options expiry on Sept. 27 could solidify the current bullish momentum.
The surge in Ether’s price has been primarily driven by a cut in US Federal Reserve interest rates, signaling a shift toward a more accommodative monetary policy. As a result, the S&P 500 index hit an all-time high on Sept. 24. Further bolstering this outlook, a drop in the S&P Global Manufacturing PMI on Sept. 23 heightened investor concerns about the health of the economy.
Ether/USD (blue) vs. US 2-year Treasury yield (magenta). Source: TradingView
Bank of America is preparing to hand $14 million to customers in a settlement over alleged hidden fees. The settlement will resolve allegations that the banking giant intentionally charged hidden fees on incoming wire transfers for both checking and savings account holders. Specifically, the bank is accused of purposefully levying and hiding $15 fees on […]
The post $14,000,000 Handout for Bank of America Customers Incoming After Lender Accused of Intentional Charging Hidden Fees, Violating Account Agreements appeared first on The Daily Hodl.
JPMorgan Chase just issued a major warning to its 86 million customers. The banking giant says a list of new regulations moving through Washington, D.C. will force the company to begin charging customers for checking accounts, reports the Wall Street Journal. The bank cites proposed regulations from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Federal […]
The post JPMorgan Chase Warns 86,000,000 Customers Poised To Pay for Bank Accounts in Massive Overhaul, Elimination of Free Services appeared first on The Daily Hodl.
LayerZero’s “not an airdrop” ZRO token airdrop has spurred a new peak for Arbitrum’s daily revenue.
LayerZero’s token launch on June 20 caused a massive surge in fees on Arbitrum, leading to a record $3.43 million daily revenue for the blockchain, a bump of around 16,680% compared to ththe day prior.
LayerZero launched the ZRO token on Thursday but triggered criticism over its obligatory “donation” mechanism — which requires claimants to spend a small amount of money per token to nab their allocation.
These mechanics pushed up the average gas fees on the blockchain, which hit 89 cents, up from its typical less-than-1-cent fee.
A billion-dollar bank in the US is reportedly facing a potential class-action lawsuit for the second time in about three years over allegedly hammering customers with “crippling” overdraft fees. Customers LaNita Criswell and LaSheena Neal say Frost Bank’s history of imposing $35 overdraft fees on transactions that do not exceed account balances is in breach […]
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Replace-by-fee (RBF) is a feature in Bitcoin that allows users to replace an unconfirmed transaction with a higher fee to expedite confirmation.
The Bitcoin network’s replace-by-fee (RBF) policy enables users to replace pending (unconfirmed) transactions with new ones with higher transaction costs.
The RBF policy was proposed in BIP 125 and introduced as a feature in the Bitcoin protocol with the release of Bitcoin Core version 0.12.0, which was released in February 2016. This feature provides flexibility to users who wish to speed up their transactions or modify the fee in reaction to network constraints.
On Nov. 23, 2023, a Bitcoin user made a transaction at 9:59 am UTC, paying an exceptionally high transaction fee of $3.1 million for transferring 139.42 Bitcoin (BTC). This exorbitant fee set a record as the eighth-highest in Bitcoin’s history. To put it in perspective, the user overpaid 119,980 times the typical transaction fee. There are a couple of factors at play here:
The sender may have purposefully selected a high transaction charge in an attempt to get a quicker confirmation or because they misjudged the fee.
Users may substitute a higher-fee transaction for an unconfirmed transaction under the replace-by-fee policy. This implies that to guarantee speedier confirmation, the sender may have chosen to replace the initial transaction, which may have had a high cost, with a new one with an even higher fee.
It’s possible that the sender was not paying close attention to the network circumstances or was not wholly aware of the consequences of their actions. They might not have anticipated that the RBF would lead to a significant transaction fee increase.
RBF capability comes in handy when Bitcoin users want to speed up transaction confirmation or modify costs in reaction to shifting network conditions.
Replace-by-fee is a transaction policy embedded in the Bitcoin network protocol and is supported by Bitcoin Core, the reference implementation of the protocol. As mentioned, due to the RBF policy, users can swap out an unconfirmed Bitcoin transaction for a new one with a higher transaction fee.
It is crucial to remember that different wallets and services within the Bitcoin ecosystem may embrace RBF differently. For instance, although RBF is supported by Bitcoin Core, not all wallets may adopt or offer this feature. To ensure that their wallet or service is compatible with the replace-by-fee policy, users should confirm the particular characteristics and guidelines of the platform.
Other RBF rules include that the new transaction must maintain the same outputs as the previous one and have a higher sequence number for each input to use RBF. Additionally, RBF only applies to transactions that have not yet been confirmed; once a transaction is approved, it cannot be undone. However, as not all nodes and miners may support or recognize RBF transactions, its efficacy depends on network conditions and miners’ willingness to prioritize transactions with higher fees.
In addition, specific wallets, such as Trezor, allow users to “Bump Fee” on pending, unconfirmed transactions. Moreover, Crypto.com users can utilize advanced transaction settings to send Ether (ETH) or other ERC-20 tokens, allowing customization of the nonce value, gas price or gas limit. This feature, available in-app version 1.8.2 and above, empowers advanced users to tailor transaction parameters.
Users can navigate to the advanced settings via the send confirmation screen, adjust values, review the projected network fee and proceed with the transaction. The process includes confirming the customized settings and authorizing the transaction with a passcode and a 2FA code if enabled.
Bitcoin users can expedite transaction confirmation by creating a new transaction with a higher fee, signaled by a unique “sequence number,” which, when broadcasted, may be prioritized by miners, replacing the original transaction.
The state of the network, miners’ rules, and the degree of support from the participating nodes and wallets all affect the effectiveness of the RBF policy. Here’s a detailed explanation of how RBF operates:
A Bitcoin transaction is initiated by a user and shared with the network. The transaction sits in the mempool and is pending inclusion in a block by a miner.
The user can initiate a new transaction with a higher fee if they want to expedite the confirmation process or find the fee too low.
The new transaction includes a unique “sequence number” in the transaction input, signaling that it is intended to replace a previous transaction. This sequence number is higher than that of the original transaction.
In the context of Bitcoin, the nSequence field, originally designed for “sequence number-based replacement” or “time-locking,” serves two primary purposes. Firstly, for a transaction to be eligible for fee replacement, it must express its replaceability at the time of initial sending. This is accomplished by setting the nSequence field — a component within each transaction — to a value below 0xffffffe.
In hexadecimal notation, 0xffffffe represents a 32-bit unsigned integer with all bits set to 1 except for the least significant bit. In decimal, this value is equivalent to 4294967294. Secondly, the nSequence field enables relative lock times for transaction inputs, allowing transactions to be updated after the broadcast, providing flexibility for adjustments and facilitating RBF.
The user broadcasts the replacement transaction to the Bitcoin network. Miners who select transactions for block inclusion may see the replacement transaction with the higher fee. They may decide to include the replacement transaction in a block because they are incentivized to include transactions with greater fees.
The original transaction gets replaced if the replacement transaction is included in the block. The replacement transaction will not be validated and is essentially “bumped” out of the mempool.
To enable RBF in a Bitcoin wallet, users should verify support, access settings, enable the RBF option and adjust fees, while disabling RBF involves accessing settings, disabling the RBF option and ensuring it’s not activated by default.
Users must ensure their selected wallet supports RBF before turning this feature on. The wallet settings can usually be accessed in the advanced or transaction preferences section.
The user should search the settings for an RBF option, typically “Replace-by-Fee” or a similar term and enable this option. Users can then broadcast the transaction to the network and change the transaction fee if there is trouble confirming the transaction.
Version 21.2.2 of the Trezor Suite offers on-device support for the Trezor Model T (firmware 2.3.5 and up) and the Trezor Model One (firmware 1.9.4 and up). Users can use RBF to either finalize the transaction or raise the fee.
RBF, by output reduction, deducts the additional charge from the transfer amount rather than the account balance when transmitting the maximum amount of Bitcoin from a single account.
Users can employ RBF with Trezor devices in Electrum, allowing for the replacement of the original transaction. However, this replacement is only feasible if the initial transaction was executed using Electrum with the “Replace by fee” option enabled, accessible through Tools > Preferences > Replace by fee.
On the other hand, the user needs to access wallet settings to disable RBF. Disabling RBF should be possible via the advanced options or transaction preferences. This option may be titled “Replace-by-Fee” or something similar.
To ensure this functionality is not activated by default in any newly made transactions in the wallet, the user must uncheck the enabled option. The documentation or support resources for the wallet under consideration should be referred to obtain up-to-date and precise information on enabling or disabling RBF.
The RBF policy in Bitcoin allows fee adjustments post-transaction but raises concerns of double-spending, user confusion and network congestion.
RBF raises concerns about possible double-spending because users can replace an unconfirmed transaction with a new one with higher fees. This risk makes it difficult for merchants or recipients of transactions to decide which transactions are legitimate, which could result in fraud and misunderstanding.
RBF can complicate the user experience because people unaware of its operation may inadvertently replace transactions or encounter delays. Furthermore, this feature makes it more difficult for businesses to forecast confirmation timeframes precisely by lowering transaction reliability and predictability.
The efficiency of the network as a whole may also be impacted by users routinely replacing transactions with extensive fees, which can also cause congestion. Moreover, RBF’s vulnerability to misuse, which would enable unscrupulous parties to take advantage of the system for financial benefit, emphasizes the necessity of its careful use and user education.
The government of Kazakhstan has collected over $7 million in taxes this and last year from enterprises mining cryptocurrency in the country. The news comes amid growing regulatory pressure that is limiting the industry’s access to low-cost energy while increasing its tax burden. Miners Face Higher Expenses, More Challenges Under New Legislation Kazakhstan’s coffers have […]
On Monday, Twitter users noticed that the traditional blue bird logo had been replaced by a cartoon picture of Doge. Meanwhile, the leading meme coin cryptocurrency, Dogecoin, jumped 23% higher against the U.S. dollar after the logo change. Twitter Bird Logo Changes to Doge Twitter has updated its logo, replacing it with a picture of […]
Statistics show transfer fees on the Bitcoin network have increased 122% since the end of last month, as the average transaction fee has climbed from $0.767 to $1.704 per transaction. The rise in onchain fees coincides with the new Ordinals digital collectible trend on the network, with the number of inscriptions nearing 20,000. Rising Transaction […]