Bitcoin Forum

Last time I played with bitcoin it was possible to send btc without paying a fee.
Why does the new qt client refuse to send a transaction without tacking a fee on?
Or am I missing how I can send a buck or three to someone without using command line and spending a day on google learning how to do it and not paying fees.

Whether it allows you to send a tx with no fee, depends on how many BTC you want to send (the more, the better) and when you received the coins that you are spending (the sooner, then better).

I though "old coins" have a higher priority. So "the sooner, the beter" would be the other way around. Did I get that part wrong?

I meant: the sooner you received them - then older they are :)

Oh, yes that makes sense. Thanks!


BTT: you can also use a modified version of bitcoin core to send bitcoins without fee, but that might result in problems.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=22434.0

right I get that part. although I sent .4 recently and pretty sure
I was forced into clicking ok for a fee on that as well. Thought the limit was lower but not the real point..
Where is the easy option to send a 5 dollar donation without getting hit with a tx fee using the QT client?

Don't forget that you can compile the software yourself and remove any mandatory fees the client wants you to use.  You can also manually generate a transaction with any number of libraries/wallets etc.   The main thing that you risk (which I think you know) is that your transaction never gets confirmed.  However, if you're not ready to use a command line or read things, you might be out of luck.

Use a bitcoin wallet which does not enforce a fee.

There is a mod of bitcoin-qt, which does not enforce a fee: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=22434.0 (never tried it)

But there are also other bitcoin wallets that don't treat you like they were Apple and you were an iPhone user.

It may take much longer for your tx to confirm, but since its a donation I guess you don't care.
In any case make a backup of your wallet.dat before sending, because if the tx gets stuck, it may lock your change amount.

yea and that is just crazy that a person needs to go through all that.
What was wrong with the old way? was there really a need to micromanage fee enforcement without jumping through hoops?
Sure I'm ok with the confirmation taking 48 hrs if needed or longer. I'm ok paying fees as well, to speed up confirms etc.
I saw the fork wallet, I just don't want "dust" lost in the ether. I don't go around throwing pennies on the street as it is.

Wait longer.  

High priority tx = priority > 57,600,000.  That is roughly one bitcoin day.  If you receive one bitcoin and wait one day you can "spend" some or all of it without waiting.

Low priority txs = Everything else.   Even if you change your client, by default other clients will refuse to relay tx which are low priority and do no meet the min fee requirements.   So understand the client is just preventing you from doing something which would result in coins being "stuck" for days or potentially forever because it won't let you create what it knows it and other clients won't relay.

There is no "old way".  It has always worked this way.  In the past you likely had larger value and older outputs ("coins") and thus could optionally send without a fee as a high priority txs.   Nothing has changed other than the min fee has been reduced a couple times, and some other restrictions have been removed (not added).