What Is Child Pays for Parent (CPFP) in Bitcoin?
Bitcoin has been a dominant force in the cryptocurrency market since its inception.
Its popularity and value have grown tremendously over the years, leading to increased interest and a rising price.
As Bitcoin’s blockchain continues to expand, managing the network becomes increasingly challenging.
This growth has led to higher transaction fees paid to miners, which can sometimes be burdensome for everyday Bitcoin users, causing transactions to remain unconfirmed for extended periods.
However, there are several ways to expedite these transactions, such as Bitcoin transaction accelerators and the Replace by Fee (RBF) method.
This post will explore another option, the Child Pays for Parent (CPFP) method.
What Is Child Pays for Parent?
Child Pays for Parent (CPFP) is a method used to accelerate unconfirmed Bitcoin transactions.
This technique involves creating a new transaction (the “child”) that pays a higher fee to compensate for the lower fee of the original transaction (the “parent”), prompting miners to prioritize and confirm both transactions together. Both the sender and recipient can use this method.
Think of CPFP as a scenario where a parent lacks sufficient funds, and their child covers the shortfall.
How Does CPFP Work?
CPFP relies on two key Bitcoin rules:
- The output-generating transaction must appear on the blockchain before the output-spending transaction, including the parent transaction appearing earlier in the same block if both are included.
- In Bitcoin transactions, all outputs must be spent. If a transaction is unconfirmed, the recipient can create a child transaction associated with the parent transaction, adding more fees and sending the remainder to another address. This ensures that all inputs are confirmed and placed in the mempool.
As the sender, you can also create a new transaction using the second output of the transaction as input.
Benefits of CPFP
Accelerated Transactions
CPFP allows both the sender and receiver to expedite the transaction, ensuring quick payments.
Recipient-Driven Boost
Unlike other acceleration methods, CPFP enables the recipient to initiate the process, making it useful when the transaction is more critical to the receiver.
Reduced Double-Spending Risk
CPFP reduces the likelihood of double spending. Miners, seeking higher rewards, will prioritize confirming the parent transaction first, ensuring both transactions are legitimate.
Now that you understand CPFP and its benefits, here are some wallets that support this method:
List of Wallet Allowing CPFP
BitPay Wallet
BitPay is the biggest crypto payment processor in the world, helping businesses and merchants who want to accept Bitcoin payments around the world.
A wallet is a non-custodial, and offers features like private key encryption, PIN, and biometric authentication.
Also, a wallet allows you to boost transactions by using the CPFP method.
Available on Android, iOS, and Windows, it supports CPFP for boosting transactions.
Exodus Wallet
A leading multi-currency wallet, Exodus supports over 100 crypto assets and offers an HD wallet feature for added security.
You can utilize CPFP to expedite Bitcoin transactions. Available for mobile, desktop, and hardware wallets.
Electrum Bitcoin Wallet
Electrum is an open-source Bitcoin wallet available for both PC and mobile users.
Electrum is an open-source, lightweight wallet with features like multisig, hardware wallet support, and 2FA.
Along with all these features, you can manually boost stuck Bitcoin transactions using the CPFP method by following this guide.
Bitcoin Core
Bitcoin core is the native Bitcoin wallet and the most popular implementation of the Bitcoin software.
The wallet supports Windows, MacOS, Linux, and Unix even the wallet can be used from the command line or GUI front end.
You get more advanced features, security, and controls like customizable fees, and can speed up slow transactions with Replace By Fee (RBF) or Child Pays For Parent (CPFP) transactions.
One downside of the wallet is it is a Bitcoin full client meaning it requires you to download and sync the entire blockchain, although you can prune it to save disk space.
Mycelium Wallet
A mobile wallet for Android and iOS, Mycelium is an HD wallet that offers PIN protection and hardware wallet integration.
It also includes a “Bump fee” option using the CPFP method.
Conclusion
The Child Pays for Parent method can effectively boost transaction confirmation, but it’s essential to understand that it doesn’t guarantee immediate confirmations.
Miners’ decisions can vary, and some transactions may still take time or remain unconfirmed if the fees are insufficient.
While wallets offering CPFP can simplify the process, users shouldn’t solely rely on this method for expediting transactions.
