1mBTC and below bitcoins

[hashkey]

Hello everyone. I'm quite new to the world of Bitcoin and I just got here around the 2nd week of Nov. I always go to websites like bitvisitor.com, dailybitcoins.org, coinad.com, bitcrate.net and chromaticcreative.net/bitcoin/kabm/ to name a few so that I could get some free bitcoins and somehow get involved or learn new things from the Bitcoin world .

But as I read the bitcoin wiki, I've learned that by default sending bitcoins would deduct a 0.5mBTC unless the transaction is smaller than 10KB and all outputs are 0.01BTC or larger. I attempted to send some of my bitcoins to my offline wallet but the bitcoin-qt client always tells me that I will be paying some transaction fee that's varying depending on the amount that I trial and error. And it turns out that there's no way for me to send this tiny bitcoins to my offline wallet without having to give it all up just to pay for the transaction fee .

Is there really no way for me to make this tiny bitcoins to consolidate and combine their values to become a single input the next time I transfer it? Or I will just have to keep this useless wallet and wait for significant changes on the transaction fees the bitcoin client sets? I've read something about free transaction relay network but it seems quite complicated and still there's a fee but quite less than the default .

[Stephen Gornick]

Hello everyone. I'm quite new to the world of Bitcoin and I just got here around the 2nd week of Nov. I always go to websites like bitvisitor.com, dailybitcoins.org, coinad.com, bitcrate.net and chromaticcreative.net/bitcoin/kabm/ to name a few so that I could get some free bitcoins and somehow get involved or learn new things from the Bitcoin world .

But as I read the bitcoin wiki, I've learned that by default sending bitcoins would deduct a 0.5mBTC unless the transaction is smaller than 10KB and all outputs are 0.01BTC or larger

Right.  So but that is a per-transaction, not per-coin.  So you might have dozens and dozens of these 1mBTC, but when sending all of them at once, you only pay 0.5mBTC.      So just let them accumulate and the amount of the fee gets smaller and smaller as a percent the total transaction amount.

But bitcoin wasn't built for microtransactions.   Sure you can do them inexpensively today, consider it to be mostly just a temporary occurrence.

0.5mBTC is still less than a penny.

If you want full control, you can use a different client that doesn't impose a minimum fee.

Blockchain.info/wallet is one such wallet.

 - http://Blockchain.info/wallet

You can even import all your existing private keys into Blockchain.info/wallet and spend there.  (Or use the Blockchain.info/wallet's desktop sync browser plugin to sync the private keys).

[hashkey]

Thanks Stephen Gornick, helpful as always! I'm currently spending some time to understand blockchain.info's My Wallet thru their FAQ page. Also, I've read on this page https://blockchain.info/wallet/faq:

Are there any fees for using My Wallet?

No it is a free service. You maybe asked to include a "miners fee" to help support the bitcoin network (See question below).

Why am I being asked to include a "Miners fee"?

 A miners fee will encourage bitcoin miners to accept your transaction more quickly. Sometimes if you don't include a fee your transaction will never get confirmed and will be returned to you in approximately 24 hours.

that I can send bitcoins without paying for the transaction fee but it may sometimes fail as I understand. So I could use/abuse this to avoid paying for the transaction fee? Is there an average chance if any, that I could successfully send bitcoins without paying for the transaction fee using blockchain.info's My Wallet?

[Stephen Gornick]

that I can send bitcoins without paying for the transaction fee but it may sometimes fail as I understand. So I could use/abuse this to avoid paying for the transaction fee? Is there an average chance if any, that I could successfully send bitcoins without paying for the transaction fee using blockchain.info's My Wallet?

Where there are instances where transactions will not confirm for hours and hours or even a day, I cannot understand what Blockchain.info is doing that would enable them to say that they will "return them" to you in 24 hours.  Once a transaction is broadcast is ends up in the transaction memory pool for tens of thousands (or more) full nodes.  You can't spend them again because those nodes won't accept another transaction with the same coins -- it is a double spend.  Eventually the original transaction will get mined.

I've asked this on the blockchain.info thread:
 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=40264.msg1376902#msg1376902

[Kazimir]

No offense, but is a few mBTC really worth the effort? Wouldn't it be easier, faster, and CHEAPER (in terms of time and effort and resources) to just buy 1 BTC through an exchange?

But if you really insist, try importing it in a blockchain.info wallet and send a custom transaction. You can manually specifiy the fee there. I've tested transactions with fees as low as 0.00001 BTC and they worked fine.

You can also try an alternative client, such as MultiBit, which also allows to configure the fee manually.

[deepceleron]

It's cheaper than sending a penny with Western Union...

There are only a few options when paying fees:

-Pay the required 0.0005-BTC-per-Kilobyte (of transaction size) if the priority (based on how long you've had the coins and how much you are sending in one transaction) is too low,
-Send with extra voluntary fees if you want to ensure quick processing or contribute something,
-Enjoy fee-free sending if you are sending a large number of mature Bitcoins at once,
-Pay anything less than the minimum required fee and take your chances that the transaction will ever be included in the blockchain.