Questions about bitcoin transfer

[tt007]

Hello and greetings to the entire community!

I will ask 2 very be straight-forward questions, to which I haven't seen a clear answer by google search.

Question 1
Is there any way to transfer a part of the sum on a bitcoin paper wallet to a digital wallet ?

I have tried moving a sum from a paper wallet before, scanned the QR code and all of the sum in the paper wallet got transferred to my digital wallet.

Question 2
Why are transaction fees so high and how do the fees vary ?

I've bought some bitcoin from a General Bytes ATM and received 0.014135 BTC in 1GB2v7rNXf6KTXmsq8o2R2WoxFZYxZFpDD and the charge for the transaction (payed by the sender) was 0.0000692 BTC (~ 0.49% of the transferred amount).

Moving the 0.014135 BTC to a mobile wallet: 1FqGw38kARvWwAP9fJp8TeEF7ank1V6MGt, I received only 0.01373935 BTC, and I was taxed FEE: 0.00039565 BTC = ~ 2.8% while buying the ammount from the ATM cost the seller about ~5.7 times less (0.49%).

How can this be ? How can one tranfer cost 0.49 % and another transfer cost 2.8 % ?

Please do not tell me it is the transfer time, as I have bought bitcoins from the same ATM in different days and at different hours, in different sums and the tax was the same: 0.0000692 BTC.

At the same time, while verifying the transfer cost to another wallet in the Bitcoin Wallet Mobile App, the tax is, surprise! :  0.00037 for any sum up to 0.01373935 BTC (roughly 2.7% of the maximum).

Can the wallet developer set the transfer fees ? If so, what is wallet with minimum taxes for transfers ? Is it possible to get a lower fee ? For example, like my General Bytes ATM local provider, who was taxed for bitcoin transfer much less.

The mobile app used was Bitcoin Wallet ( " https://bitcoin.org/en/wallets/mobile/android/bitcoinwallet/ " ).

Thank you and best regards.

[eckmar]

1. Answer

What you are doing is probably importing whole wallet. If you want to do that, you will import all BTC there, if you want to transfer part of it, just send TX to your digital wallet

2. Answer

Fees depends on current number of unconfirmed transactions in mempool, number of miners (more mines process unconfirmed transactions faster) and transaction size. You can check number of unconfirmed tx here https://blockchain.info/unconfirmed-transactions and https://bitcoinfees.21.co/ will give you fee estimation. Some wallets lets you set custom fee, some dont

[TheGodson]

I can answer your first question. As for your second question I'll leave that to someone more knowledgeable on the matter.

1) I know you can do it through blockchain.info. Under settings you can upload your paper wallet. Then hit send. You then supply your private key and the public address of where your sending it to (which should obviously be the address of your digital wallet). You can enter the specific amount. If you enter a partial amount it will ask you if you want to send the remaining amount to a separate address with a new key or keep it in the wallet it currently resides (not recommended).

[Juggy777]

If you are using a paper wallet you need to spend your fund in one go you cannot keep funds in it, cause you would be exposing your private keys and you cant keep your coins in there, as far the fees it keeps on changing on how many blocks are there, sometimes it's high and rare chances low, this fees doesn't go to wallet owner it goes to the miners who mine these blocks for a fee. So you have no option but to pay it. What I suggest is to move your funds to electrum wallet, you can set a dynamic fees or select your fees note if you do that your coins could be stuck for a very long time it's a risk you take. Every transactions requires fees.

[gentlemand]

I don't think anyone recommends part spending a paper wallet, but it can be done with the Mycelium wallet on Android. Use the cold storage option in the menu and it handles the change issue fine and allows you to spend a portion of the balance.

More often than not high fees are the fault of the wallet and services you use, not the actual Bitcoin fee market itself. Many people have had to abandon their regular wallet because they wouldn't let them use the correct fees and loads of exchanges, ATMS etc are still using stupidly high fees.

It's not Bitcoin's fault, it's their fault. Inform them that they need to change.

[eckmar]

If you are using a paper wallet you need to spend your fund in one go you cannot keep funds in it, cause you would be exposing your private keys and you cant keep your coins in there, as far the fees it keeps on changing on how many blocks are there, sometimes it's high and rare chances low, this fees doesn't go to wallet owner it goes to the miners who mine these blocks for a fee. So you have no option but to pay it. What I suggest is to move your funds to electrum wallet, you can set a dynamic fees or select your fees note if you do that your coins could be stuck for a very long time it's a risk you take. Every transactions requires fees.

I does not have to be unsecure. Most people that are part spending are using https://coinb.in/ and manually creating transactions, or simply download whole blockchain on PC, create and sign transaction offline and broadcast it on the internet after. Either way private keys are not compromised. (Well they are if computer that is creating transaction is infected...) 

[peter0425]

I don't think anyone recommends part spending a paper wallet, but it can be done with the Mycelium wallet on Android. Use the cold storage option in the menu and it handles the change issue fine and allows you to spend a portion of the balance.

More often than not high fees are the fault of the wallet and services you use, not the actual Bitcoin fee market itself. Many people have had to abandon their regular wallet because they wouldn't let them use the correct fees and loads of exchanges, ATMS etc are still using stupidly high fees.

It's not Bitcoin's fault, it's their fault. Inform them that they need to change.

Yeah, and they usually charge high fees and taking advantage of it. That's why I  totally don't used them and just used my Electrum wallet because you can dynamically adjust the fees depending on your needs. If you really want to know how much it cost to transfer a coin, you can check this website: https://bitcoinfees.21.co/. To quote:

"Which fee should I use?

The fastest and cheapest transaction fee is currently 90 satoshis/byte, shown in green at the top.
For the median transaction size of 226 bytes, this results in a fee of 20,340 satoshis.

Please note that many wallets use satoshis-per-kilobyte or bitcoins-per-kilobyte, so you may need to convert units. See our instructions for more details."

[Iranus]

1) I know you can do it through blockchain.info. Under settings you can upload your paper wallet. Then hit send. You then supply your private key and the public address of where your sending it to

OP, please note that exposing your private keys to blockchain.info and moving only part of the funds sort of defeats the point of having a paper wallet.

Of course to send a transaction you have to actually move your coins on the blockchain, which involves connecting to the Internet.  Since a paper wallet is just that - a piece of paper - it's not designed to be sending regular transactions.

With your paper wallet you should save up while trying to protect your privacy in the process and then export all the funds when you need to.  You can always put some into a new paper wallet later.

Why are transaction fees so high and how do the fees vary ?

Bitcoin transaction fees are typically measured in satoshi/byte or satoshi/kilobyte. 

The important thing is not how much money you are sending, it's how much data you're broadcasting to the blockchain.  The median transaction size is 226 bytes but there are other scenarios (for example, you receive several small payments and then move them all at once - this results in a larger transaction).

How can this be ? How can one tranfer cost 0.49 % and another transfer cost 2.8 % ?

Percentage is irrelevant.  Only the data and the total fee.

Can the wallet developer set the transfer fees ?

All good wallets (e.g. Electrum, Bitcoin Core) will allow you to set your own transaction fee.  This is pretty much an essential feature of a good wallet.  However, they also usually have a default fee which is set dynamically to give your transaction a certain level of priority.

[anon4250158]

1) If you're using a paper wallet for security reason, don't spend part of it and send the change back.  Create a new paper wallet for the change.

2) Fees are based on the number of transactions in mempool (the queue to be included in a block).  If mempool is overflowing, fees will be higher, and those paying the highest fees will be accepted into a block sooner.  If mempool contains fewer than the number of transactions that can fit in a block (1MB), the fees should be minimal and everyone will have their tx processed.  I use bitcoin core to set tx fees.

[tt007]

Thank you all for clarifying bitcoin transfer fees, so far.

Do you have any specific advice for minimizing transaction fees ?

Do you know any mobile wallet that lets you adjust transaction fees ?

I have used the Bitcoin Wallet Mobile Application ( https://bitcoin.org/en/wallets/mobile/android/bitcoinwallet/ ) for the described transaction.

Best regards!