How to update transaction fee in Bitcoin Core in 2017

[Invisible Hand]

Hello, I'm running Bitcoin Core but having the problems that it puts a low fee (~0.0001) and it takes hours to confirm. Seems like my (several years) old config file doesn't handle fees anymore.

What should I set in the config in order to make it send with transaction fees that are suitable as of 2017 and want to confirm within a couple of blocks? (seems like     -txconfirmtarget=<n>    If paytxfee is not set, include enough fee so transactions begin confirmation on average within n blocks (default: 2) is not working very well.)

edit: I put 2017 in the title so that people like me that Google this will find this thread!

[1715344666]

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[1715344666]

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[achow101]

You should use the dynamic fee estimation feature of Bitcoin Core. When you go to send a transaction, there is an option at the bottom for "transaction fee" and a button labeled "Choose...". Click that and you will get a box with a bunch of information for setting the fee. Choose the radio button labeled "Recommended" and move the slider there all the way to the side labeled "Fast" (I think it is on the right, it may have been reversed). That will always set your transaction fee to be based upon what is currently happening on the network so that your transactions will have a (overly) sufficient fee.

There is one caveat though. You need to have Bitcoin Core running a for a while in order for it to gather enough data to properly estimate the fee. So you cannot just start Bitcoin Core and expect the fee estimator to work but rather keep Bitcoin Core running for a while before you send.

[Invisible Hand]

You should use the dynamic fee estimation feature of Bitcoin Core. When you go to send a transaction, there is an option at the bottom for "transaction fee" and a button labeled "Choose...". Click that and you will get a box with a bunch of information for setting the fee. Choose the radio button labeled "Recommended" and move the slider there all the way to the side labeled "Fast" (I think it is on the right, it may have been reversed). That will always set your transaction fee to be based upon what is currently happening on the network so that your transactions will have a (overly) sufficient fee.

There is one caveat though. You need to have Bitcoin Core running a for a while in order for it to gather enough data to properly estimate the fee. So you cannot just start Bitcoin Core and expect the fee estimator to work but rather keep Bitcoin Core running for a while before you send.

Thanks, this works good in my Windows version and I see that it actually defaulted to "Estimated to begin confirmation within 25 block(s).

I see     -txconfirmtarget=<n>    If paytxfee is not set, include enough fee so transactions begin confirmation on average within n blocks (default: 2)
actually have default of 25?

[achow101]

Thanks, this works good in my Windows version and I see that it actually defaulted to "Estimated to begin confirmation within 25 block(s).

I see     -txconfirmtarget=<n>    If paytxfee is not set, include enough fee so transactions begin confirmation on average within n blocks (default: 2)
actually have default of 25?

That is for the RPC's apparently. Some things related to the fee are not connected to the GUI and even though they should be. IIRC this has been fixed for 0.14. For now, you need to set the fee in the GUI and it should save that for future uses.