Just now I watched the on-chain mempool jam up like a busy marketplace. My transaction has been stuck for almost half an hour, and I’m so anxious I want to stomp my feet. Basically, everyone is scrambling to get on the train, and miners line up the seats based on gas price. If your tip isn’t enough, you can only wait at the back of the queue. Sometimes you see other people cut in and get confirmed first, and it honestly feels pretty sour. When that cross-chain bridge incident happened recently, a lot of people waited for “confirmation” before moving—really, they were waiting for the mempool to clear and for consensus to take effect. Farming also depends on the weather: when it rains, the harvest is slower. But then, safety first—if it takes longer, it takes longer.