Is Bitcoin still suited to low amount transactions?

[lcguedes]

Hi,

I have tried to send 10m BTC to a friend 1:30 ago and it has not been confirmed yet! When I check Blockchain.info, the transaction is not there yet and I see hundreds of transactions per minute appearing there. Considering that miners will choose highest fee transactions first, low amount transactions will starve for confirmation... I have chosen the fee recommended  by the satoshi client and it says that it is probable to be confirmed in the next 25 blocks (250 minutes!). It seems that there is bid of fees and high amount transactions are more keen to pay a higher fee. Therefore, I believe that that speech of no transaction cost with bitcoin has become a fairy tale...


Status: 0/unconfirmed, in memory pool, broadcast through 7 node(s)

Date: 20/12/2016 16:01
To: Murillo 1Bf1gRLpshMxEZXH6Xw6FVRWX6Zcz8BJi4
Debit: -0.01000000 BTC
Transaction fee: -0.00009840 BTC
Net amount: -0.01009840 BTC
Transaction ID: 3493f7390da8e225a44ded54c413f6c0ced3ec3d566b89c0b3e463928f4ca1aa
Output index: 0

[Meuh6879]

in my country, i can send 0,03 euros (0,04 mBTC) with 0,06 euros (0,12 mBTC in normal priority and 0,05 mBTC with LOW priority) of fees (with my phone = android bitcoin wallet schildbach).

so, yes, you can always emit small transactions (and pay somes article in website for example).

[franky1]

you can send any amount. as long as the fee is good enough.

EG
send a penny but it will cost you 7c-20c+

at the moment third world countries like the idea of bitcoin but find the fee's the main gripe. in some countries its more than an hours wage just for the fee.

the problem is that many devs are american and small minded about the world so while they say that 7cents is cheap for a fee they are not thinking of the unbanked world.
Even their future side service LN which they want to be the future of bitcoin does not consider third world countries as it will require depositing a minimum amount to cover a certain timeframe.
one example being $4.70~ (0.006btc) just to use LN to cover the possible fee's for a 10 day channel

as for paying the recommended fee.. everyone pays that. which means you are paying no better than everyone else. and knowing every ~10 minutes there are 2000-2500 average people all paying the same. everyone is left waiting.

it is very much a bidding war, yet paying more then recommended still comes with no guarantee's only hope/expectation

[royalfestus]

I know the slow process of transaction of large amount of bitcoin is of concern to those in charge. I read lately of work been done to improve this. The speed of transfer is one of the advantages of bitcoin and it must be sustain as a edge.

[sportis]

Is true that with blocks full of transactions everyone wants to spend a small amount of btcs have to pay disproportionately big transaction fees. On the other side have you tried to sent money from Europe to USA for example? Why not check moneygram? Today  1 EUR = 0.992054 USD. If I want send from EU to USA 1 Euro I must pay 9.75 Euros that is 8.75 Euros = 0.0114829 Btc fees. Choice is yours.

[Eric Cartman]

It is a matter of perspective

Some people count the prices only by $1000's, so hundreds of dollars are nothing for them, let alone the current fees

Of course BTC is more for them than for people that earn few dollars a hour, or even a day

[philiveyjr]

In a general perspective, I still think BTC is suited for low amount transactions. I see that youve sent 10mBTC. If you'd have added 1.2mBTC as fees it would have probably been a high priority transaction and possibly been cleared by now. Any smaller amount would make it medium or low priority. Whatever the amount as long as you are paying some mBTC as fees, your transaction will go through but the difference will be the time it would take for it to go through/confirmed. Its up to you how much fees or time you want your transaction to get processed by.

[calkob]

I would have to agree with you on this one, a Bitcoin transaction is very unlikely to ever get confirmed with a zero fee transaction.  I have sent a few in the past and the last couple have never confirmed.

[BitcoinPanther]

In a general perspective, I still think BTC is suited for low amount transactions. I see that youve sent 10mBTC. If you'd have added 1.2mBTC as fees it would have probably been a high priority transaction and possibly been cleared by now. Any smaller amount would make it medium or low priority. Whatever the amount as long as you are paying some mBTC as fees, your transaction will go through but the difference will be the time it would take for it to go through/confirmed. Its up to you how much fees or time you want your transaction to get processed by.

1.2mBTC is a big payment for a fee already, you can have it confirmed in just a couple of minutes at around 0.25mBTC.  I have done this since last week and my transaction was confirmed fast.

[Taki]

I think bitcoin used to every kind of amounts. I transfer on my card bitcoins that I get from my campaign every week and it's not so big money. I just think that low transactions are not so profitable, you loose some money on tax every time.

[ajaxmoor]

In a general perspective, I still think BTC is suited for low amount transactions. I see that youve sent 10mBTC. If you'd have added 1.2mBTC as fees it would have probably been a high priority transaction and possibly been cleared by now. Any smaller amount would make it medium or low priority. Whatever the amount as long as you are paying some mBTC as fees, your transaction will go through but the difference will be the time it would take for it to go through/confirmed. Its up to you how much fees or time you want your transaction to get processed by.

The fees isn't decided that way. You should set the wallet fees through your preferences in your wallet, and you should set it to the recommended amount which is based on transaction size or something similar.

@Op do the same. Its true that you take a bigger hit as compared to before, but its still a very small amount. I would suggest send your non-urgent transactions through a lower fees and higher priority ones  through the right fees

[Velkro]

Is Bitcoin still suited to low amount transactions?

No its not. Above posts will try to pretend it is, but its not currently and it never was.
In future, there will be alternate ways of paying with bitcoin with offchain solutions so in future yes.

[rizkyhiw]

Is Bitcoin still suited to low amount transactions?

No its not. Above posts will try to pretend it is, but its not currently and it never was.
In future, there will be alternate ways of paying with bitcoin with offchain solutions so in future yes.

yeah i think so , nowadays send low amount of bitcoin looks not worth
but you can still do it however , as long as you are comfortable with it
i just wondering with what you say about offchain solutions
it's has been discussed for years, so far no progress, but it could be cool if bitcoin transaction confirmed instantly.

[20kevin20]

You can send even a few satoshis if you wish, but the lower the fee is the slower your transaction will get confirmed. Be careful about these fees because sometimes my wallet auto sets 0.001 in fees or so, which is enormous. If you set around 10k satoshis, your transaction will be confirmed in a few days. I am working with 10k fees too, and they usually get confirmed within 48 hours.

[Senor.Bla]

Is Bitcoin still suited to low amount transactions?

No its not. Above posts will try to pretend it is, but its not currently and it never was.
In future, there will be alternate ways of paying with bitcoin with offchain solutions so in future yes.

I am quite skeptical about that. Usually off chain solutions work in a manner where you make many transaction with the same recipient. Making just one transaction is problematic in this case and the fees might still be high.

[Velkro]

Is Bitcoin still suited to low amount transactions?

No its not. Above posts will try to pretend it is, but its not currently and it never was.
In future, there will be alternate ways of paying with bitcoin with offchain solutions so in future yes.

I am quite skeptical about that. Usually off chain solutions work in a manner where you make many transaction with the same recipient. Making just one transaction is problematic in this case and the fees might still be high.

Time will tell for sure, but people working on bitcoin solutions are brightest minds out there so im sleeping well waiting for what to come.

[franky1]

Is Bitcoin still suited to low amount transactions?

No its not. Above posts will try to pretend it is, but its not currently and it never was.
In future, there will be alternate ways of paying with bitcoin with offchain solutions so in future yes.

I am quite skeptical about that. Usually off chain solutions work in a manner where you make many transaction with the same recipient. Making just one transaction is problematic in this case and the fees might still be high.

Time will tell for sure, but people working on bitcoin solutions are brightest minds out there so im sleeping well waiting for what to come.

so you have not read the documentation, concepts, current tests.
so your just relying on the trust of dev's?

i think its time you trust devs less and read what they are doing more.

LN's niche is not cheap/near free transactions for everyone. LN's niche is cheap near free transactions for doing several hundred transactions a month with a certain person.

they want to charge extra if you want to hop to third, fourth, fifth person, etc. they have alot more fee's/penalties if you try to close early. so all those people that only want to pay a person once even if indirectly connected.. wont benefit.

its more for gambling sits and faucets/adsense traders that want to get many amounts in a small time.

LN is not the endgoal of bitcoin, its just a side option. and wont be something everyone needs / uses

[European Central Bank]

nope. not by a long shot any more. i think a lot of transactions are kinda frivolous, many of mine have been between wallets where i was just consolidating, and maybe people were abusing it beforehand like satoshidice, but i think it's a shame that modest transactions are being effectively priced out. i hope we're gonna get some viable options soon because i still want to use it for buying stuff.

[Huge Black Woman]

Yeh, it be random.  I jist sent a small amount to a colleague o' mine on very low priority an' it went thru within a few minutes.  Then otha times it takes forever, even when it on higher priority.  This here is a bizarre network.  Sometime you win, sometime you lose wit' the speed.  Otha coins is definitely faster.

[SvenBomvolen]

   I send and receive even smaller amounts then 10 mbtc, and I dont complain on anything. Waiting for confirmation can be annoying I know, but I have patience for now.
   Bitcoin is suitable for sending any amount, and I think confirmation time will be faster in the future. Developers will think of something.