Why did blockchain.info set a ZERO fee?

[jellies]

I did a transaction of half a bitcoin with the default blockchain.info settings and the fee (according to blockchain) was 0.0 sure enough as a result it took over half an hour to get the first confirmation. Before the half hour was up I was concerned about the BTC being trapped with zero fee for days unconfirmed so did the transaction again after changing the fee setting to "generous", it got a confirm inside 5 minutes, and the fee was shown correctly (0.001) this time.

So my question is: why did blockchain.info wallet set a zero fee when there is no field to set the fee to a particular number other than frugal/standard/generous, and no preference for setting a zero fee?

[btcton]

Your transaction was probably high priority and did not need fees. As for taking 30 minutes to confirm, that was probably when the next block was discovered and it just took longer than usual - it happens.

[jellies]

thanks!

then the transaction fee thing is pretty poorly implemented.

1, there isn't a clear notification in blockchain.info that your transaction qualified as FREE because the coins are old, not new, and therefore it is going to go as fast as possible. I don't remember any such info or feedback in the reference client also.

2, when you view the transaction it isn't clear what you're waiting for, have any blocks been mined since the transaction that you didn't get into? or are you waiting with the rest of the world for the next block?

3, if you pay for faster service, the money is wasted under some (many) circumstances. i did two transactions, the first qualified as free apparently, the second I picked a generous fee option. While the second happened to get its first confirm faster because of block mining luck, the all important *confirmations* appeared to happen at the same rate for both transactions.
Does a generous fee improve the speed of the confirmations? it didn't look like it.

[manoamano]

You need to read more about fees ...
The default fee depends on several factors (inputs, outputs, number of transactions, ...).

[jellies]

Understanding the machinations of the fees is not the same as the experience as a *user*, and that is the experience I'm attempting to explain because it is the experience the majority of people will have with the software. So these fee topics will keep coming up.

Pay for a faster transfer? how fast is that? it isn't explained. Now I know, but the concept is slippery.

Pay a higher fee when actually your transaction qualifies as fast and free anyway? that is a fee that is wasted.

Does paying a fee increase confirmation time? no, right? yet the confirmation time is a critical part of the transaction time.