Every time the chain gets congested, I remember the first time I saw the mempool: a bunch of transactions queuing up there, like taking a number at the nightclub entrance. You don’t send it out with “instant settlement”—you go stand at the back of the line first, while miners/packagers pick off the ones with higher fees first. If your fee is too low, you’ll keep getting left hanging… the longer you wait, the more anxious you get, and your hands itch to speed it up—except when you speed it up, you’re also afraid of popping through the liquidation line. Laughable.

Recently, it’s airdrop season + task platforms cracking down on bots, and the points-based system has everyone punching in like at work—so when congestion hits, it gets even more ridiculous: the same interaction, but if you’re a few minutes late, you might miss the rhythm. There are lots of tutorials; I usually only watch the ones that clearly explain what to do with “failure/stuck/replacement transactions.” Don’t make it too mystical. In any case, on-chain reality is just that straightforward.