paying no transaction fee

[eerygarden]

If you set your wallet to pay zero transaction fee what happens? Is there more than one possibility.

It makes sense that no transaction fee means that you get no priority, but will the transaction always be processed eventually? If yes, what is the maximum time frame? If no, is there a maximum time limit before it bounces back? Could it be stuck in limbo for months?

[ikydesu]

If you set your wallet to pay zero transaction fee what happens? Is there more than one possibility.

It makes sense that no transaction fee means that you get no priority, but will the transaction always be processed eventually? If yes, what is the maximum time frame? If no, is there a maximum time limit before it bounces back? Could it be stuck in limbo for months?

Your transaction will delay maybe over 2 days dependent to transaction volume(i think it's risky).
but, "A transaction may be safely sent without fees if these conditions are met: 
It is smaller than 1,000 bytes.
All outputs are 0.01 BTC or larger.
Its priority is large enough (see the Technical Info section below)".
you can check about transaction fees here: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Transaction_fees


~iki

[shorena]

If you set your wallet to pay zero transaction fee what happens? Is there more than one possibility.

It makes sense that no transaction fee means that you get no priority, but will the transaction always be processed eventually? If yes, what is the maximum time frame? If no, is there a maximum time limit before it bounces back? Could it be stuck in limbo for months?

It will be confirmed eventually. If we consider the priority of the bitcoin day (1 bitcoin, 144 (1d) confirmations, 1 input, 1 output) and that its linear (.1 BTC, 1440 confirmations) the highest number of confirmations you would have to sit out in order to get a reasonable high priority would be for a 1000 Satoshi TX. A TX spending less than 546 satoshi is considered dust and would not get relayed by most nodes. This input would need 100,000 days or 14,400,000 confirmations to get a reasonable high priority for a confirmation without fee.

Depending on your wallet software or service the TX will get constantly rebroadcasted to make sure no nodes forget about it.

If you have a low fee and you cant stop the rebroadcasting the TX might be "in limbo" for months, yes.

[Sourgummies]

My first time using a bitcoin atm I had setup blockchain on my cell phone the night before. I sat in this cafe waiting for the money for 45 minutes. I went into the office to find out I had not clicked miners fee. So I made another withdraw this time paying the miners fee and both transactions went through together,which was interesting.
But I would suggest paying the fee if you want to have a life.

edit: The 2nd transfer went through in 10 minutes.

[LFC_Bitcoin]

It's not worth the risk of your transaction not being confirmed. Just pay the average/set fee, it's pretty much nothing any way. You need to  do your bit to assist the network otherwise there is no blockchain.
I often send a higher fee when I send a decent amount of bitcoin because it gets confirmed quicker & I get paranoid waiting for the 'recommended 6 confirmations'.
Seriously bro the standard fee is nothing, why do you want to send money with 0 fee?

[unholycactus]

It's not worth the risk of your transaction not being confirmed. Just pay the average/set fee, it's pretty much nothing any way. You need to  do your bit to assist the network otherwise there is no blockchain.
I often send a higher fee when I send a decent amount of bitcoin because it gets confirmed quicker & I get paranoid waiting for the 'recommended 6 confirmations'.
Seriously bro the standard fee is nothing, why do you want to send money with 0 fee?

It's not nothing and saving the fee could be appealing.

[Sourgummies]

Can you guys confirm my experience with not paying first time but doing so the second time pushed through both?
Wondering if it was just fluke that they both went through.

[jbrnt]

Can you guys confirm my experience with not paying first time but doing so the second time pushed through both?
Wondering if it was just fluke that they both went through.

I am not sure what actually made both transactions to confirm, but this looks like the "child pays for parent" transaction fee approach. I am not aware that this approach has been implemented and supported by miners. Could be just luck.

[minifrij]

It's not nothing and saving the fee could be appealing.

Once you start getting a decent amount of BTC, 0.0001BTC (normal TX fee) is nothing.

[unholycactus]

It's not nothing and saving the fee could be appealing.

Once you start getting a decent amount of BTC, 0.0001BTC (normal TX fee) is nothing.

There's a big difference between nothing and almost nothing.

[DannyHamilton]

If you set your wallet to pay zero transaction fee what happens? Is there more than one possibility.

It makes sense that no transaction fee means that you get no priority, but will the transaction always be processed eventually? If yes, what is the maximum time frame? If no, is there a maximum time limit before it bounces back? Could it be stuck in limbo for months?

You've received a bit of good advice and a lot of bad information in this thread.  Please be careful of whose feedback you trust.

What happens if you send a transaction without a fee depends entirely on what wallet you are using, and what your technical expertise is.

As one example...

If you are using the blockchain.info wallet, they will wait a few days for the transaction to confirm. If it has not confirmed yet after a few days have passed, they will stop broadcasting the transaction to the rest of the network, and will show you your balance as if you had never sent the transaction in the first place.  If you then send a new transaction that re-uses the same inputs, the address will be labeled in their block explorer web pages as having been associated with a "double spend".

As another example...

If you are using Bitcoin Core, the wallet will continuously re-broadcast the transaction forever until it confirms.  You might get lucky and a generous miner (or mining pool) may quickly confirm your transaction, or it could take a VERY long time.  There is no guarantee that the transaction will EVER confirm, although realistically I would expect that it would eventually confirm.  If you become impatient there are tools and/or methods that can be used to manually get the wallet to stop broadcasting the transaction.  If you use one of those methods the wallet will again reflect your balance as if you had never sent the transaction in the first place (although even then there is a chance that the recipient or someone else on the network might choose to re-broadcast the transaction).

[jeannemadrigal2]

Just use half of the suggested fee.  It is almost nothing, like 1 cent or something.  It will take a bit longer but may be worth it.  But unless you are sending dust around to wallets all day long I really don't see the point in not paying the fee.

[aahzmundus]

If you set your wallet to pay zero transaction fee what happens? Is there more than one possibility.

It makes sense that no transaction fee means that you get no priority, but will the transaction always be processed eventually? If yes, what is the maximum time frame? If no, is there a maximum time limit before it bounces back? Could it be stuck in limbo for months?

It's not advisable to go for 'no transaction fee' transactions, especially when you're sending a large amount of BTCs.
If you're going for small transactions, you could possibly explore that option assuming that it won't be delivered anytime soon.

I prefer giving the transaction fee instead for safe and quick transactions
Hope that helps

[Amph]

it will take much more time on average, until now, my average was around two hours, i think i was pretty lucky, usually it would take even a day if your priority is low, because of the queue and other factors(like how many transaction in that exact time, like if there was a fee with the previous transaction, ecc...)

[adzino]

It's always a good thing to add a transaction fee, no matter how small is it, as to encourage the miners to include your transaction in the next block. I use around 3-4cent tx fees and it always gets confirmed on time. You could probably give 1 cent as a fee and the miners might still pick it up. So if you want your transaction to be confirmed quickly you should consider including a fee of at least 0.0001 BTC

But when sending larger transaction, like one whole coin, tx fee not really need as those automatically gets higher priority on the network.

No tx fee = slow confirmation. With tx fee = faster confirmation.

[JamesCB]

If you feel .0001 is to much for you, you can include as low as 1k satoshi so your transaction will be confirmed in average 6 blocks

[pooya87]

If you are using the blockchain.info wallet, they will wait a few days for the transaction to confirm. If it has not confirmed yet after a few days have passed, they will stop broadcasting the transaction to the rest of the network, and will show you your balance as if you had never sent the transaction in the first place.  If you then send a new transaction that re-uses the same inputs, the address will be labeled in their block explorer web pages as having been associated with a "double spend".

if the transaction is not confirmed by ~2 days then they stop broadcasting it for a short time i have not take the exact time it takes, but it is not more that 15 minutes. EDIT: i checked my email, and apparently it is 1 hour gap.
then the same transaction will be re-broadcasted again.

the balance is restored in that 15 minute gap and you can double spend it.

also you will receive an email indicating that the transaction is failed.

Transaction Confirmation Failed

A transaction made through Blockchain.info has been removed from our database because it was taking a long time to be included in a block.

Any funds have been returned to your wallet and you can now spend the coins again. Please consider including a larger fee in future transactions.

after this it will be re-broadcasted to the network

[ranochigo]

It's always a good thing to add a transaction fee, no matter how small is it, as to encourage the miners to include your transaction in the next block. I use around 3-4cent tx fees and it always gets confirmed on time. You could probably give 1 cent as a fee and the miners might still pick it up. So if you want your transaction to be confirmed quickly you should consider including a fee of at least 0.0001 BTC

1.But when sending larger transaction, like one whole coin, tx fee not really need as those automatically gets higher priority on the network.

2.No tx fee = slow confirmation. With tx fee = faster confirmation.

1. It depends on transaction size. Larger transaction would require much more transaction fees. The priority is affected by input value, age and transaction size. Hence, if the transaction is new, size is big, the transaction fees would be required.
2. Again, it depends on priority. If it has high priority, 0.00001BTC is all that is required for nodes to relay your transaction since default bitcoin core needs 0.00001BTC fees to relay.

[shorena]

Can you guys confirm my experience with not paying first time but doing so the second time pushed through both?
Wondering if it was just fluke that they both went through.

I am not sure what actually made both transactions to confirm, but this looks like the "child pays for parent" transaction fee approach. I am not aware that this approach has been implemented and supported by miners. Could be just luck.

Its impossible to tell without a TX ID, but I would guess that the 2nd transaction was spending the first transaction and thus the second could only be confirmed once the first was confirmed. AFAIK most miners have not implemented child pays for parent and thus this would be entirely coincidential. The 1st TX would probably have confirmed in the same block regardless of the 2nd TX.

[eerygarden]

Seriously bro the standard fee is nothing, why do you want to send money with 0 fee?

I don't. I was just looking for some education.

Thank you to all who responded to this post.