Bitcoin Forum

how much time can pass between one person saying he has sent the bitcoins and the other recieving them ? also i will like to note that i have been reading extensively about bitcoins for two days and no one ever mentioned the "voluntary fee"  of 0.01 for transactions ... without that detail i think the information i have been receiving from the bitcoin organization and other bitcoins players is not totally fair , it very much looks like a trap to me ... does anyone agree?

The fee is voluntary in the protocol. In the client (latest version), it is mandatory for very low priority transactions. This should change to be optional (but strongly recommended) in the next version.

I had asked that question earlier. I hope it does get changed soon too. I was thinking of a lot of innovative ways to develop for bitcoin in the future, many of which would require mass micro payouts (0.1 at least).

Another gripe I had about it was that someone told me the fee goes back to the person who solved the block, but in my case (and many others) we were a part of pools that mined those blocks. Who in that case gets the fee?

Hopefully in the future mandatory fees will only be imposed to abusers.

I had this question as well. Can some one explain to me in detail where these transaction fees go?

Transaction fees go to the person operating a bitcoin node (colloquially referred to as "miner").  In reality, there are not many people operating nodes by themselves and instead provide their computing power to a pool of others.  In the current state of the BTC economy, the pools simply keep the fees as operating expenses (see:profit) but as BTC matures, the incentive to contribute computing power to the BTC network will slowly narrow in on those fees as the main prize.  We shall see where our market model takes us in that time.  :)

Thank you. Is there any further documentation on these nodes you could refer me to?

Yep, visit the mining forum on this board.  Everyone there is contributing to a node or being their own node.

So if I am solo generating is it possible for me to collect transaction fees WITHOUT generating a block?

Nope.  The person who generates the block, includes (whatever they feel like / are programmed to include) transactions that are then verified by everyone else.  The transactions contained in the block generated, have their fees given to the person who solved the block.

So, for now, solving a block is a "bounty" of 50BTC, plus tx fees.   The 50 btc bounty shrinks over time, and will eventually reach zero, and the tx fees will sustain the network.  That "50 btc bounty" is the way BTC "prints money".   Eventually that goes away and all the coins ever to be in circulation are in circulation.

So transaction fees are collected by the block originator for all transactions occurring during that block cycle? is that correct?

Pretty much.  When you "solve" a block, you get to decide what transactions go into that block.  As a default, nodes accept any tx with a fee, and a limited space for free transfers.  You can modify this however, to say, only include transactions with fees.  The freeloaders will have to wait for the next block solver... (or indefinitely, if you keep solving them!  :) )