Last night, the network was congested, and I truly felt that mempool is either mysticism or just a bunch of people lining up at the door... When you send a transaction, it's really just "taking a number," and then miners/validators pick the ones they like to include first. If you give too little gas, it just stays hanging there, seeming like it's lost but not really lost. To speed it up, you have to replace or cancel, and a shaky hand can end up costing more money.

The most annoying part is that the collective tacit understanding of "waiting for confirmation" has returned: the shadow of the cross-chain bridge theft from a while ago is still there, and everyone is more afraid of getting stuck halfway; then there's the occasional glitch with oracles reporting outrageous prices, and during those few minutes on the chain, no one dares to act first.

I'm now very cautious—when there's congestion, I don't leverage, I prefer to slow down, live first, and then proceed.