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After waiting a while, my wallet did no longer allow to promote my transaction and forced me to reattach.

That forced me into reattaching the transaction, in the process I "doomed" three other non-zero transactions attached to mine. I waited over an hour with reattaching...

Why does my wallet not allow me to promote? Is there any reason - as long as a transaction can still confirm - to not promote them, even if they are already a few hours/days old? After all this doesn't "doom" transactions and requires far less POW.

Werner der Champ
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  • Would you mind posting your transaction hash of the "original" so that we have a live example to explain on? – mihi Dec 27 '17 at 12:13
  • Can't find it anymore, I deleted the seed after donating the iota on it. I don't think this is necessary at all to have one – Werner der Champ Dec 27 '17 at 15:26

1 Answers1

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When you select a transction in your wallet, the wallet will ask your connected node if it considers the transaction bundle still consistent. A transaction bundle can become inconsistent if one of its two approving transactions (which were chosen at the time when you initially attached your transaction) are double-spends (or reattachments) of already confirmed transactions, or if they themselves are inconsistent because one of their appoving transactions are double-spends or attachmetns. That means that your transaction (and everything attached to it) is already "doomed" and the only way for you (and the other transactions attached to it) to get your transaction confirmed is to reattach.

(I have seen reports on slack where people claim that their transaction cannot be promoted although there was no obvious reattached transaction found in its approved transactions (down to the point where they got confirmed). So far I think this has not been able to be reproduced (since those people reattachedd their transaction before someone could have a look at it), but it could as well be that there is a bug in either the wallet or the full node that may result in wrong decisions in rare cases (perhaps try changing node when it happens the next time?). So far this is only speculation, though.)

mihi
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  • I think the latter one was the case for me. I checked the trunk and batch transaction, wasn't a double spend apparently (at least the bundles weren't reattached anywhere). – Werner der Champ Dec 27 '17 at 15:28
  • It really seems to happen from time to time. My wallet forced me to instantly reattach this one today https://thetangle.org/bundle/FMVCIUHIEXEYFKZPORDFFYL9GBPWPFBNPBKNHFBJBQXSARITJJUVJGWYVE9JBTACRLIINILBVHHRRGFYX . Wanted to promote as POW took long (PC installed Updates in background). Digged in the explorer, no conflict found – Werner der Champ Dec 28 '17 at 23:26
  • https://thetangle.org/transaction/ILSCHPQSXCJBKQCYQOBPLWTULPYCLXP9PSYAZHWTXQVWCWSLJDLRDLCLACSTLYTTQHBUNIIVMKHXA9999 (last of bundle)'s trunk points to https://thetangle.org/transaction/UMWDUCIUJFYEKLS9DEWGZXVBCIHZQ9SFYTFPFAWSUCNLPFFGUYYBEFEWVVDF9THQGZMDNAAYLNUI99999 whose branch points to https://thetangle.org/transaction/AOTPEOCCFNSMJUZPEEOMOLYIASJCYQTLMYRYUGUDUKH9AYUIKKOFZJZSXIPVGQNJBTNEMPQKOFQF99999 whose trunk points to https://thetangle.org/transaction/YPAKUSWXWWAGDDUIHCVQUMLXDEJXKPQIMNWILOWWD9TSFTKJYTGVZSZTNAVUXSIQHWJOMUTIP9UTZ9999 whose trunk ... – mihi Dec 28 '17 at 23:35
  • ... points to https://thetangle.org/transaction/HSULTGAQRSTHINMCKXDBRTMJWKYHZIVYIEWKWY9HOCGAWFSJDBKTVETZUFXFHHIXCTWGRHGQNKBQA9999 (a mineiota.com transaction whose reattachment got confirmed) – mihi Dec 28 '17 at 23:35
  • Okay, I didn't look back that far. The only question that stays is whether it confirmed before I had to reattach. We'll probably never know. – Werner der Champ Dec 29 '17 at 09:33