Last night the on-chain network was a bit congested, and my mint was like queuing in the mempool to buy bubble tea… You think you click and it’s done, but then there’s a bunch of people ahead who raise the fee to cut in line, so miners/packagers naturally deliver the first “to the one who tips more.” I initially dug my heels in and didn’t mention increasing the price, but later I watched the pending transactions hanging there, and my mindset was just like staring at the floor price: the more I kept watching, the more anxious I got. In the end, I still had to dutifully add a bit of gas to get it through.

There’s another experience that’s pretty similar to security at a concert: the same door, everyone can enter, but some people go through the VIP lane (private packing / bypassing the public pool), and you outside can only hear the inside getting hype… It also made me think about the recent debate in the group about privacy coins / mixing compliance. In a way, it’s the same queuing logic: some people want to take a “more discreet route,” while others are afraid of crossing the line—so the split feels quite real. That’s just how it is on-chain: transparency is annoying, but being too opaque is also unsettling. That’s it for now—I’m not going to pick a fight with the pending transactions today.