Should bitcoin lower the transaction fee?

[matthewh3]

One possible solution would be to simply make any transaction with an output value less than the minimum fee non-standard, so that those transactions won't be relayed or mined by miners. After all, if the value is less than the minimum fee, there isn't any rational reason to spend the output. (the fee is zero with sufficient priority mind you, but zero-fee tx's probably won't get mined forever)

A very good idea! I hope this gets implemented and used by the major mining pools.

Well then that would stop/damage the use/development of 'coloured coins'.

[PrintCoins]

Well we give such large blocks to miners, they might as well fill them with small paying transactions. It is better than leaving them mostly empty.

The max block size should be smaller to have actual price competion for block space, than we won't need to worry about setting fee rates.

As a miner why not just accept every nonzero since you don't lose anything by adding them.

[solex]

..The max block size should be smaller to have actual price competion for block space, than we won't need to worry about setting fee rates...

Check out this chart of daily transaction fees:

https://blockchain.info/charts/transaction-fees-usd?showDataPoints=false&timespan=&show_header=true&daysAverageString=7&scale=0&address=

Do we really need to force any more price competition right now? Why not let this level out and then decide whether fees are high enough?