The Ethereum network is open-source software built with blockchain technology with a number of decentralized applications in their thousands powering the native token, Ether (ETH). This token, however, can be sent and received across the globe without the need for any third party.
The network, which was conceptualized first in 2013 by Vitalik Buterin, a Russian-Canadian programmer, was designed as the perfect platform for permanent, self-executing, and immutable decentralized applications (dApps) with various use cases ranging from art to finance and gaming.
The decentralized apps are most often referred to as smart contracts and they are transaction protocols for the Ethereum network which carry out certain actions and functions automatically like processing transactions with some preset agreements and conditions.
By implication, facilitating a transaction, canceling it, or settling a pending transaction on the Ethereum network are actions relating to the function of the smart contracts.
What then is an Ethereum Transaction?
Generally, crypto transactions are instructions signed cryptographically from crypto accounts. However, when it comes to the Ethereum network, there are two different types of crypto transactions. There is the regular transaction which is the simplest form of crypto transaction (or at least, the general one known), which has to do with the transfer of Ether (ETH) from one crypto wallet to another.
The second type of transaction on the ETH network is called contract deployment transactions which are the type of transactions that don’t involve a receiver.
A regular transaction submitted on the network includes a signature generated when the transaction is signed with the private keys of the sender or some other identifier of the sender to confirm that the sender has authorized the particular ETH transaction. Other important information in a regular Ethereum transaction submitted to the network include the address of the receiver, the amount of the Ether sent from the sender to the receiver, information about network fees charged on the transaction, and other optional arbitrary data submitted by the sender for the transaction.
For an Ethereum transaction to be valid, it will require a fee from the sender and it must be mined as well.
Miners on the Ethereum network have the responsibility of verifying legitimate transactions wherewith they earn a reward for creating new ETH. Basically, a crypto transaction is validated when a miner using his mining setup solves a mathematical (cryptographic) puzzle/task. Just like Bitcoin (BTC), the Ethereum network runs the proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism which prevents cyber attacks either from groups or a single individual.
The essence of the fee charged n every transaction on the network is to protect the Ethereum network and the blockchain from malicious and sloppy computational tasks. An example of those tasks is having users spamming the network with purposeless and unnecessary transactions.
The Lifecycle of an Ethereum Transaction
For a complete cycle of an Ethereum transaction, there are processes and stages it passes through starting from the unknown state till it becomes confirmed in a block.
- The Unknown State
The state of the Ethereum transaction is referred to as a state where the transaction is not identified or processed by the network.
- The Pending State
Being submitted by the sender, the transaction enters a pending state where it is waiting for a miner to pick it up for processing. Transactions in this state are called Pool Transactions and oftentimes are also called “Mempool.” However, how long a transaction will retain this state depends on the network fee committed to it.
Because the priorities of the miners are on the transactions that have higher fees committed to them, the ones with lower gas fees tend to languish in their pending state for a longer period of time. Also, there is such a possibility that the Ethereum transaction with the lowest gas fees may never get the attention of the miners which leaves them stuck with the pending status forever.
- The In-Block State
It is said that a transaction is in its in-block state after the transaction has gotten the attention of the miner and he has successfully mined it in a block. In other words, in-block transactions are mined transactions. However, if the transaction falls in a forked block, it returns back to its pending state. To better put, a forked transaction is a mined transaction (or a transaction in its in-block state) that is reversed by the network.
- Replaced State
Two circumstances can call for an Ethereum transaction to move from a pending state to a replaced state.
- When a new transaction from the same sender with the same nonce enters the in-block state,
- Or when another transaction having the same nonce with a gas higher than 12% from the same sender enters the pending stage.
The Confirmations of an Ethereum Transaction
For every Ethereum transaction to enter the Ethereum blockchain, the sender needs to attach a transaction fee which serves as an incentive for the miners mining the blocks.
The transaction fees charged by the Ethereum blockchain are also called gas fees, as they are like literal gas that pushes the transaction. This is the pricing mechanism that the Ethereum network used and it is the computation required by a miner to process the transaction. However, the gas cost is used to measure the computational tasks of a transaction.
In another perspective, each unit of the gas has its price in ETH. Though the gas cost of a particular transaction is determined by the complexity of the transaction, users still have the opportunity to choose their own price and set a limit for the gas, or at least the maximum amount of gas they want a transaction to consume.
What is a Nonce in an Ethereum Transaction?
The word “Nonce” is an abbreviation for “Number Only Used Once,” which refers to the total number of transactions already confirmed from a given ETH address.
An account can have multiple transactions broadcasted from its Ethereum wallets without much delay to another account. This means that the nonce calculation becomes a necessary mechanism to determine which of the transaction to prioritize. On a norm, ETH wallet applications help the users manage their nonce.
How to Cancel an ETH Transaction?
There are basically two main methods available to cancel a pending transaction on the Ethereum network; one is the in-application cancellation while the other is ‘setting a custom nonce.’
Ideally, transactions on the Ethereum network are left pending for hours or might even be stuck in their pending state as mentioned above when the user attributes a low gas price to the transaction. With these possibilities, users have then need to change ETH transactions.
However, there is a need to mention in this guide that the possibility of users canceling ETH transactions is valid only when the transaction is in its pending state.
To get started, there is a need to confirm that the transaction is still in its pending state through the block explorer. The process of verifying includes getting and pasting the Ethereum transaction ID (which is often called Transaction Hash) on the block explorer and watching out for the status of the transaction among other details shown on the block explorer. If the transaction status is still pending, it means such a transaction can still be canceled by the user.
For a stuck Ethereum transaction, the easiest way to cancel it is to use the in-application cancellation. All that is required of the user is to just exit the ETH Wallet application and close the browser they are using, reopen it and log in again to the application.
However, if the method proves abortive, the second method will always come in handy – setting a custom nonce.
The other method required to cancel a stuck ETH transaction (or one still in its pending state) is by setting a custom nonce (number only used once). This means generating a 0 ETH transaction with a huge gas price attributed to it to the user’s own address. This is to prevent the previous transaction from being stuck. However, before submitting the second transaction, users must understand that they need to note the nonce attached to the previous transaction that is pending or got stuck and go ahead to use the same for the new transaction.
Peradventure the user has multiple ETH transactions pending, they should start preferably with the oldest transaction or the one with the lowest nonce value.
Practical Steps to Replace an Ethereum Transaction on MetaMask
- Log in to the MetaMask wallet with which the pending transaction was made, or if it is an external wallet, you can import the address using the corresponding private key or seed phrase.
- Under the activity tab on the homepage, you will find the pending transaction. You can simply speed it up with the “speed up” button under the transaction which allows you to increase the gas price, but since you want to replace the transaction, click on the transaction to get more details about the transaction. The details you want to note (write down) is the ‘Nonce Value.’ Should you have multiple pending transactions as stated earlier, you will need to start with the oldest transaction with the lowest nonce value.
- After writing down the nonce value, the next step is to go to the “Settings” page of the MetaMask and click on “Advanced.”
- Scroll down to find the settings option “Customize Transaction Nonce”. Ensure that it is turned on. Then return to the homepage.
- Copy your wallet address and input it as a recipient of a transaction by simply pasting it in the “Add Recipient” field.
- From here, all you have to do is to send 0 ETH to your own ETH address which you have pasted using the same nonce you have written in step 2. Click confirm to submit the transaction when you are sure.
However, it is good to note that it is possible for the transaction to also get stuck if the gas price attributed to it is too low. So, you will want to attribute a reasonable gas price to get it processed.
- Wait for the new submitted transaction to be confirmed to get the pending one replaced
Note: it is good to turn off the “Customize Transaction Nonce” setting back off (the process in Step 3b&4) to avoid an accident.
The Process of Speeding up an ETH Transaction
Just like an Ethereum transaction can get stuck on the network almost forever basically because of the low gas price attached, there is such possibility that a transaction is very slow, still because of the low gas price attributed. However, to speed a slow ETH transaction, all the user needs to do is to add gas to it. This process gives more incentives to the ETH miners and makes them prioritize the transaction.
If a user on the ETH network sets a low gas price limit for his transaction, there are chances other transactions from other users get noticed first as their gas price outbids the initial bid which leaves the previous transaction pending. However, when a transaction from a user is stuck, the network will not confirm any other fresh transactions from the same user (with the same wallet address) until the previous transaction gets confirmed by the miners.
In this scenario, users are left with two options; either they simply wait until the network (miner) is willing to process the transaction at the gas price they set or simply resubmit the same transaction with a higher gas price that could make the network recognize the transaction.
There is a button on the ETH wallet called “Speed Up” that simply allows you to get your transaction processed faster. But then if this doesn’t work, the user will need to manually go to the advanced tab on the transaction page to set the gas price himself.
Overall, users are encouraged to monitor the transaction on the block explorer by simply posting the ETH transaction ID (or transaction hash) to see if it has been successfully processed. Peradventure the transaction details did not show immediately, users just need to wait a few moments and refresh the explorer page.
How does Network Congestion Delay ETH Transactions?
Most often, the amount of gas price needed to get your transaction noticed by the miners on the Ethereum network is determined by the network congestion. This affects both the cost (in terms of gas price) and the speed of getting the transaction processed.
The congestion of the network is caused by the number of pending transactions on the network at a given time. This means that the more congested the network becomes, the more gas price will be needed to get your transaction secured and processed on the blockchain.
Knowing that miners favor transactions that have higher gas prices attributed to them over the ones willing to pay lower fees to get their transaction processed, there is a need to know the average gas price needed for a transaction at a given time based on the congestion of the network.
There are such tools as the ETH Gas Price Tracker (https://etherscan.io/gasTracker) that recommend a safe gas price to attribute to your transaction at every point in time based on how congested the market is. The gas price tracker also informs you of the estimated time your transaction will take to get processed based on the given gas price.
Is It Possible to Reverse an ETH Transaction?
it is noteworthy to mention that ETH wallets have no capability to revert an Ethereum transaction that has been processed and marked as completed already.
Though, there is such a scenario that an ETH user sends a wrong amount of ETH accidentally to someone or even sends funds to the wrong address. Such a transaction can be canceled while it is still in its pending state. However, if a transaction is processed, confirmed, and marked as completed, (meaning it has been added to the next block), such transaction cannot be reversed.
The design of the Ethereum blockchain makes it immutable, which means that whatever data enter the blocks are not reversible. This knowledge makes it essential for users to be double sure of the details of transactions they are sending up for confirmation before clicking the SEND button.
Final Words
However, it is good to conclude with the news that some blockchain startups are rising with the burden of developing a mechanism that will allow users to reverse any ETH transaction.
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