The mempool is jammed again today—like a sticky pot, after refreshing for half a day it’s nothing but pending. Damn it. I just wanted to rush an L2 small coin, but the gas shot straight up into three digits; I hesitated for a second and got cut in line. Makes me so angry.

Speaking of it, when things are congested you really can feel the mempool is like a transparent black box—you’re in a rush, but miners aren’t, and they can just watch your tx get dragged through the line and peeled for profit by all kinds of “old hands.” One time I even saw an MEV bot insert itself with surgical precision and clamp my transaction shut—the whole fee got fed to someone else like a midnight snack.

Anyway, people in the space always complain about whether transaction ordering is fair, but what can you do if you’re not a validator? As retail users, all we can do is stare at the pool, waiting and hoping we get confirmed first. If it’s a popular mint, you don’t even get a chance—straight to gg. For now, I’ll leave it sitting there as a suspended order; I’ll check again tomorrow.