As the title says I am new to Bitcoin and I somewhat confused with some questions.
I have some bitcoins in Coinbase. Read up and was informed it's best to keep it in a wallet, so I signed up for breadwallet. I then transferred a small amount from breadwallet. Let's say it was $50 even. I was charged $5.18 for the transfer from Coinbase to my breadwallet. Here are some questions:
1. I am charged a fee for the transfer just to store my bitcoins in a secure wallet?
2. Will I be charged another fee to transfer the bitcoins back to Coinbase to sell them?
3. I get the fee to sell my bitcoins and then transfer to my personal bank account, but what I don't get is why you'd be charged a fee to move to and from a wallet when it's nothing more than a holding spot for your money. So why the need for a wallet and why not keep all your Bitcoins in Coinbase?
4. If you have a wallet, can you sell and withdraw your funds to your personal account from there? I didn't see this option in breadwallet, just to buy.
In the end, just seems silly to pay a fee to more to and from your wallet to an exchange such as Coinbase to buy and sell your bitcoins whenever you have the need to do so.
Thanks for any help and info.
With Bitcoin there will always be a fee to move Bitcoins from one wallet to another. This is because there is work being done to transfer the Bitcoins and to confirm the transaction. The work to do this is done by third parties which are miners. They don’t work for free so they are paid in newly mined Bitcoins as well as transaction fees. The sender is the one that pays the fee to the miners. It doesn’t matter if you own both wallets or not. Some third party has to perform that transaction and they have to get paid.
