Almost one million bitcoins, worth more than half a billion dollars, are currently stuck in no mans land as the network struggles to meet rising demand from China.
At one point, 70,000 transactions were stuck, unleashing a mountain of complaints from worried bitcoin users who took to bitcoins main communication channels of r/btc and r/bitcoin to ask why their transaction does not confirm. Among the complainants was a parent who wondered why their sons payment to Microsoft is not going through. Another asked why his transaction has not confirmed in 24 hours while others wanted to know how to delete unconfirmed transactions.
The surge in demand acted as, in effect, a DDoS of the network, denying service to users due to a 1MB transaction space limit which has been the subject of debate for many years with no solution achieved due to refusal from some bitcoin developers, mainly employed by Blockstream, to in any way provide a solution in time for surging demand.
https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/bitcoin-network-breaks-demand-surges/