Replace-by-fee (RBF) is a feature in Bitcoin that allows users to replace an unconfirmed transaction with a higher fee to expedite confirmation.
What is the replace-by-fee (RBF) policy?
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.
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). To put it in perspective, the user overpaid 119,980 times the typical transaction fee.
High transaction fee selection
The sender may have purposefully selected a high transaction charge in an attempt to get a quicker confirmation or because they misjudged the fee.
RBF policy
Users may substitute a higher-fee transaction for an unconfirmed transaction under the replace-by-fee policy.
Sender’s unawareness
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.
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