A question about transaction fees

[drawingthesun]

Hi ya.

I was reading this:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=139933.0
and dree12 spoke about how the fees can eventually be really small and people could make more from transactions.

Could someone please explain what dree12 is saying but with numbers?

I understand that right now the Bitcoin network runs at about 1 transaction every second and people are paying about 0.01 Bitcoin for this.

How would the future look? 5000 transactions every second at 0.00001 Bitcoin perhaps?

Also whats to stop everyone just paying 0 and thus destroying the entire network?

Cheers

(I would reply to that thread I linked but I can't because this is a new account)

[1714053802]

1714053802

[nyrednek]

I can answer one of your questions. If you don't pay a transaction fee, your transaction takes longer. Sometimes it takes MUCH longer. Speed is what you're paying for when you pay a transaction fee.

[caveden]

How would the future look? 5000 transactions every second at 0.00001 Bitcoin perhaps?

5k tps is quite high. According to this page, Visa itself process 2k tps.
Plus, bitcoins can be traded without the blockchain. You may think of the blockchain as a "clearing house".

Nobody can predict how much transaction fees will be paying in the future. We can assume it will be lower than CCs.

Also whats to stop everyone just paying 0 and thus destroying the entire network?

Miners are free not to include a transaction in the block they mine. The transaction fee is a kind of tip to the miner that includes your transaction.