Lately, looking at the blockchain is like watching a line for bubble tea... mempool is congested, and your transaction is actually taking a number behind a bunch of people. It’s broadcasted out first, and nodes can see it, but miners/packagers will only pick the “more attractive” ones to include in the block first. Basically, those who pay higher fees get prioritized faster. If you pay a normal fee, your transaction might hang there, occasionally pushed to the back, or even timeout and be considered failed by your wallet. To speed it up, you need to replace the same transaction (increase the fee and resend), otherwise you can only wait for it to go through on its own.

Airdrop season has become even more obvious lately, with task platforms messing around with anti-witch-hunting and point systems, pushing a bunch of people to behave like clocking in at work. Blockchain congestion is as punctual as rush hour. Anyway, I’m now doing a little practice: when a transaction gets stuck, don’t rush to resend it repeatedly. First, check the block production and fee levels—see if you can wait. Don’t treat anxiety as a signal that you “must complete the transaction immediately.” That’s it for now; taking it slow isn’t shameful.