Bitcoin Forum

Have we ever considered the advantages of Bitcoin's insignificant fees? I utilized Coinbase in the UK to send some coins to my younger brother, and the transaction was completed successfully in less than 15 minutes which is like instant transfer. Previously, I had to wait three working days for Western Union to validate my transaction. With Bitcoin, the days of going to the bank and waiting in line have vanished, and I can now send something to him without incurring any additional fees. In the past, I had been using Western Union to do this, but the extra fees were ridiculous, so I didn't have to complain because I didn't know about bitcoin. I'm happier now that i could save some extra charges.

Bitcoin has a lower transaction fee compared to fiat currency, most especially when it comes to making an international or cross boarder payments, bitcoin transaction is faster and cheaper with this, you can choose to pay at a particular fee been made customizable to your affordability, when and how to go about making such transaction will also depend on you, only that you cannot afford to make mistake it because they are irreversible.

Was this an internal transfer between two Coinbase accounts or were you sending BTC to your brother's wallet? The confirmation time for on-chain transactions can vary from practically instant (if you are lucky enough to have sent the transaction at the right moment), and you can wait 1 hour regardless of whether you have paid the priority fee.


I don't know anything about how long the WU transfer takes, although it seems to me that three days is really too much - but I don't think the fees are as big as you say. The calculator from the WU site says, for example, that for $100 sent from the US to the EU, the other party receives EUR 93.38, which means that the fee is $0.99 or even less.

In addition, fees for on-chain transactions these days amounted to over $10, and currently the priority fees are just under $5.

The validation time can be dependent on the payment method and I haven't used them for almost a decade even then the payments will be settled on the next working day itself.

The problem is fee will become higher when we send more money, for example if we send $1000 then the commission for WU will be around $10 to $40.

You might even check that your transaction and still found out that you have paid more than what is even required of you to send a transaction across the Bitcoin network. I mean centralized exchanges request more than what is needed to send a Bitcoin transaction. If the transaction is offchain(Internal transaction/sending between coinbase user to another coinbase User), you might be ash for any transaction fees as they are always free but external transactions always required a fee.

If you have your own personal wallet or hardware wallet, you can always send Bitcoin to anyone at any part of the world and when the mempool is less congested, you will be paying less than a dollar for a transaction for a single input and output transaction.

For someone who is using Bitcoin to avoid paying higher fees for international transaction it is better to send them through an exchange as the receiver will be trading to their local currency on receipt of the bitcoins. It should not however be used to store funds for an extended period of time, only amounts that are being sent back and forth.

If you hold your coins in exchange, I'd convert my coins to other cheap fees coins e.g. LTC, DOGE because centralized exchange will charge additional fees. As long as the coins is used to cashout instead of holding for long time, there's nothing bad for doing that.

But it's different to other nations, @OP is from Nigeria, so the fees would be different to send from EU to Africa.

Honestly, the fees could have been cheaper for Bitcoin but because of some network spams, the fees have increased and that only means that there's more demand to it as of this moment. But if you're looking at it as if that you're able to save more mone then so be it and that's a better outlook that you've got than most of us. Because what we think of the current fees are way to high compared in the past that we get to send transactions in less than a dollar and to be exact like 1 sat/vB. However in your case and with the use of exchanges offchain transactions, that's what you're able to enjoy.

I have never used coinbase for my crypto to fiat transactions, but I have a feeling the fee is way high when converting fiat to due to those hidden slippage rates and their service fees. I prefer doing P2P, where I could even get better deals if the liquidity is high enough,

Indeed, Bitcoin transaction fees are so cheap and become very meaningful when one is transferring huge amounts of money with fewer inputs. Imagine sending across BTC worth $1M for just less than $2 worth in fees  :)

I don't use coin base so I am not certain now their fees are calculated, but I always recommend people concert through P2P, it's better for your privacy if you're using a decentralized exchange and you get much better fees.

Coinbase is a centralised platforms for that you may likely have such payments within and outside the chains at a faster and cheaper rate if you are not using the bitcoin network, but other alternative chains that are available on the excahges, this is one of such advantage of centralised excahges.


But also note that centralised exchanges comes with there own negative sides such as you note having control over your assets and fact that there is not secret key you own not wallet, and the exchange have the power and right to freeze your account without you having access to your money just like the bank.


Excahges to me serves as alternative and if exchange provides you with such low fees service with faster transaction then it suitable as an alternative.

The speed and transaction costs are one of the practical advantages of Bitcoin, the Bitcoin transaction process is much faster than the transfer process through the conventional banking system. When you want to send Bitcoin to your sister who is in another country, you don't need to wait a long time like when using an international bank transfer service. Bitcoin transactions can be completed in a matter of minutes, transaction fees are also lower compared to international interbank transfer fees, especially when you send large amounts of money. The advantages that Bitcoin has compared to fiat currencies make blockchain technology and Bitcoin increasingly popular throughout the world, using Bitcoin can save money from expensive transfer fees and currency conversion fees.

Not entirely true, transfer and confirmation of local bank transfers is much faster than the confirmation time of Bitcoin.  Same bank transfers also does not charge fee and interbank transfer in the same country cost less in my country.  Local interbank transfer in my country costs around $0.30 $0.40 compared to the  Bitcoin transaction's current highest priority fee as of this writing which is $8.94 according to mempool.

https://i.ibb.co/NVkvC7f/feefee.png


I agree that Bitcoin shines in international transfer fees and transactions since it removes the third-party institutions from processing the transfers resulting in cheaper and faster transactions.


This depends on the destination of the transaction.  If the transaction is done within the region and in the same bank, bank transfer is way cheaper and faster but when the transfer destination is in far away places or a different country, then using Bitcoin to transfer funds is way faster and cheaper.

There have been cases where large amount of money sent through Western Union get withheld by the banks for suspicion of fraud. In such situation you'd have to provide the necessary documents and wait much longer for proper checks to be carried out before you could get your money. While Bitcoin transactions could be faster and cheaper when compared to WU, the one that actually stands out for me is the elimination of middle man.

Bitcoin transaction fee will change from time to time. There are times that the transaction fee is $7 for low priority as of this writing and it will change later on. As of writing this post is that the low priority is 80 sat/vB and when I checked later on it is at 77 sat/vB. When the mempool is flooded with transactions then other people will increase their transaction fee if they want their transaction to get confirmed much faster which makes other people to also increase sat/vB if they want their tx on the next block that will be mined. Well, it's true that we can save some of our funds when the transaction fee is less so if mempool is not crowded with transactions then you'll pay less fee and the confirmation won't be very long.

I think the logical conclusion would be that the fees we pay for sending money can be different, whether it is banks or services like WU, depending on the payment method and the country from/to which it is sent. However, sometimes these fees are cheaper than the BTC on-chain fee, so if we already have a choice, we should always check all options before deciding to make a transaction.

It should also be kept in mind that when we look at the transaction price for BTC, it is about the fact that the final price of the transaction depends on the number of inputs/outputs, that is, on the size of the transaction. If, for example, you have 10 inputs and 2 outputs, you will get a total transaction size of 757 vB, which with the current fee would amount to about $55 for confirmation in the next 2 blocks.

If it is an internal transfer between two Coinbase accounts, it can be completed very quickly. It can be done shortly after Coinbase approve that internal transfer. In fact, more correctly, there is no transfer, it's just a credit from one account to another account with approval internally from Coinbase.

If it is an on chain transaction, it will be between to wallets and this will require on chain transaction fee.

It depends on network status, mempool condition, used fee rate for that transaction like high or low and depends on a luck factor too. If you are lucky, you can broadcast your transaction and some seconds later, a new block will be found and your transaction can be confirmed with that block.

Time gaps between blocks (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5245684.msg54380155#msg54380155) has information on it.

Who says that Bitcoin fees are insignificant?
Many exchanges may have different fees they charge, but when you are a trader either fulltime or part time and have to do so whether in the bullish or bearish seasons, then you would get to see the changes in fee charges across various exchange platforms.

I understand that you are more happier with the ease of stress that Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies has offered to international users on the blockchain network, because if we look at it closely, it would have saved you the transportation to and from the western Union office, it would have saved you need to explain what the money you are sending is for, on paper too, it would have also saved you the amount of time to be patient for the transfer through Western Union to your brother.

All these are some great benefits why even though some may not have coins in their wallets , I advice them to have wallets and be familiar with the functions and operations of exchanges, as well as be more research and studious student of cryptocurrency here and outside, so as to know other ways Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies can be of benefits.

Those who are investors and need to transfer bitcoins on a regular basis will surely expect bitcoin transaction fees to return to normal levels. They will always expect this because if Bitcoin's transaction fees return to normal levels, investors will not need to spend extra money to trade Bitcoin at all, and in this case, they will have a lot of money left over to trade. Basically this is called facility of transaction without extra charge. Additional transaction fees may not be much of a problem for those who have a large amount of investment, but for small investors or mid-level investors, additional transaction fees are a problem.

There is nothing like "additional transaction fees" for sending Bitcoin on-chain, additional transaction fees sounds like there are extra fees or charges when you send Bitcoin on-chain. What you pay is transaction fees and it can vary for a few reasons, if the mempool is clogged like it is now, you are going to pay a higher fee, and your inputs as well as your address type can also increase or decrease fees you're going to pay.

Yes, it is true that in comparison with the traditional banking system, transactions on the BTC-network look like “magic” (although, as you know, this is still the fastest of cryptocurrencies), because a transaction anywhere in the world is carried out in a matter of minutes while lying on the couch.

Even the banking sector has undergone great changes (in most countries) since then. Now almost all banking transactions are carried out in a few clicks in the app from a smartphone (depending on the country of residence and the development of the local banking system).

You're missing out on these extra costs (double conversion):
at 1st. stage fiat - bitcoin (you personally);
at 2nd. stage bitcoin - fiat (your little brother).

At each stage you pay a commission. But even despite this, bitcoin looks like a very convenient thing, and most importantly, independent of traditional systems, outside the influence of governments, sanctions, bans and other bullshit from which only the most ordinary citizens suffer. In general, we can consider this an international currency for everyone.

I wonder what the OP thinks today (if by any chance he looked at transaction prices), because this is one of those times when everyone is looking for an alternative, whether it's a bank, a money transfer service or altcoins. Almost $150 for high priority is the highest I've ever seen, and that's obviously something we'll remember this halving for.

https://talkimg.com/images/2024/04/20/j49YD.png

Credits to @nutildah (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5478905.msg63968504#msg63968504) to capture this.

You send with coinbase yes maybe fellow users so it is faster and cheaper, usually cex is like that, although I use the next cex but I think the mechanism is not too far sir. By the way why don't you send to local cex in your brother's region? in my country for local cex already support e-wallet or conventional account for payment method and receive funds from convert crypto assets, it's useful even though it's charged a little tax but it's very useful, DYOR.
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Indeed, sometimes there is a consolidation or sideway phase in the bitcoin journey rely that even after good news, but bitcoin is the only crypto asset that is very good and even this year I am sure that many companies or individuals will become richer because they have bitcoin. I realise that bitcoin has become an asset that is recognised even some countries have it. Who doesn't want bitcoin, especially if the fee for sending between addresses with the blockchain is back to normal, it will certainly make it easier and get more attention for those who are waiting for the sats /byte to drop ;). I also sometimes take advantage of this momentum.

Good you're enjoying the benefits of Bitcoin but you still aren't enjoying the full benefits because you could have easily sent that same amount of Bitcoin that you needed to send to your younger brother with less charge, I know the fees are lesser than Western union and that is making you comfortable with it but when you send Bitcoin from your private wallet that isn't centralized like the exchange you mention, you can use a lesser fee and the transaction will still be as fast as it was when you used coinbase exchange (might even be faster).

Coinbase exchange has a service fees that they charge you for withdrawal and they're no difference from banks. You don't have privacy when you make use of exchange for this transactions and they're traceable since exchange make use of a central service and keeping record for all transactions done on their exchange, it might mean nothing to you for now but it can be use against you in the future.

You know the governments aren't fully onboard with the use of Bitcoin and other altcoins since they consider to be unregulated. There are many non custodial wallets that you can use, you don't have to use the typical hardware wallet but make sure when you're doing a transaction it should be from your personal wallet and they should be non constodial for maximum privacy (anonymity).

You didn't mention where your young brother is living but yes, it's one of the most useful use cases of cryptocurrencies. Unfortunately withrawal fees and transaction fees are rather high for Bitcoin, or transactions could take several days to be confirmed otherwise. But unfortunately if your brother has no way to directly buy something he needs in Bictoins, he will need to convert his funds in fiat money and to withdraw them to a banking account. He will need to pay fees on top of the ones you've paid to buy your Bitcoins and to send them to him. So it's not totally free and sometimes it could even be cheaper to use Paypal or similar services.