[2017-02-04] Almost $1 Billion Worth of Bitcoins Stuck in Transaction Backlog

[tyz]

I had a quite similar experience when I transferred one Bitcoin to an exchange earlier this year, when the price had risen sharply. I sent the transaction with a minimum fee of 0.0001 and it took 28 hours to confirm the transaction because there were over 30k of transactions unconfirmed. This first showed me how vulnerable the system is if the number of transactions is too high. Bitcoin is far away of being a payment system for the masses in the current technical specification.

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[d5000]

That is just the kind of news I don't want to read in mainstream media. We are lucky that it was only one of our circlejerk Bitcoin blogs. But this kind of news could slow down adoption as it's not exactly what newbies want to hear when they are interested in Bitcoin. They want to gain confidence, instead they're getting insecurity - "a currency that sometimes doesn't work? Do I really want that?"

And this kind of news will pop up more regularly if there isn't a solution to the scaling problem - and eventually there will be a mainstream newspaper that wants to benefit from this "story".

[Kemarit]

Then, bitcoin can't develop even farther to mass adoption, that will be ridiculous if someone wants to send/pay a cup of coffee worth $5 and he has to pay another $5. I agree that bitcoin fees shouldn't be higher than $0.1 or $1 depends on how much the transaction.
Anyway, we should add suitable fee for every transaction as wallet platforms already estimate it.

Bitcoin will surely be able to grow and possibly enjoy mass adoption, but not so much in the aspect of spending your coins on certain goods. Bitcoin's growth will come from people being interested in the store of value aspect, investment aspect, money transfer aspect, fact that people can anjoy financial freedom, etc. I think these features are more than enough to attract the attention of plenty of people in the coming years. As it is right now there is indeed no other option than to include proper fees with all our transactions. If certain people are really that stingy, then depending on the priority of getting their transaction confirmed, they could include a lower fee.

I felt so frustated with the recent transaction backlog that's been going
on for the past couple of weeks now. But how will bitcoin, being promoted
as a cheap payment method alternatives for doing micro-transaction?
How will it reach mass adoption with the current situation?

Others might shy away and will not use bitcoin as alternative payment.

Though I'm still clinging on hope that it will be mass adopted and enjoy by a lot of people globally!!!

[Karartma1]

For the first time in my BTC life I paid 300K satoshis for a transaction! I couldn't wait and so I paid that amount. Let's be honest, in this way BTC will never be seen for everyday spending. My tx fees are now more than the price of my morning coffee
Look at the one year mempool chart you will find a lot of interesting hints
https://blockchain.info/charts/mempool-size?timespan=1year

[naidray]

For the first time in my BTC life I paid 300K satoshis for a transaction! I couldn't wait and so I paid that amount. Let's be honest, in this way BTC will never be seen for everyday spending. My tx fees are now more than the price of my morning coffee
Look at the one year mempool chart you will find a lot of interesting hints
https://blockchain.info/charts/mempool-size?timespan=1year

That is horrible. But, as of now it seems most of the pending transactions were got confirmations and the minimum optimum network fees also come down reasonably. I read viabtc offers some free services to push our transactions to get confirmations and some people shared it is a working way. Next time, if tx fees remain high, I will try them.

[TraderTimm]

Blame the spammers that flood the mempool. This isn't organic growth causing problems, its a regular and habitual pattern of abuse that always seems to run out of money for a while until next cycle. Prime suspects are Roger Ver, ex-pat cheerleader for Bitcoin "Unlimited".

Also, 0.00000001 * 300,000 = 0.003 BTC * 1,009 (Bitstamp) == 3 bucks and change.

While high, it isn't the end of the world, either.

Again, just follow the surges in the mempool for likely actors.

[European Central Bank]

That is just the kind of news I don't want to read in mainstream media. We are lucky that it was only one of our circlejerk Bitcoin blogs. But this kind of news could slow down adoption as it's not exactly what newbies want to hear when they are interested in Bitcoin.

though it's a often an artificial problem caused by assholes with an agenda, bitcoin doesn't deserve newbies if it can't deliver for them.

[veleten]

For the first time in my BTC life I paid 300K satoshis for a transaction! I couldn't wait and so I paid that amount. Let's be honest, in this way BTC will never be seen for everyday spending. My tx fees are now more than the price of my morning coffee
Look at the one year mempool chart you will find a lot of interesting hints
https://blockchain.info/charts/mempool-size?timespan=1year

That is horrible. But, as of now it seems most of the pending transactions were got confirmations and the minimum optimum network fees also come down reasonably. I read viabtc offers some free services to push our transactions to get confirmations and some people shared it is a working way. Next time, if tx fees remain high, I will try them.

viabtc only have that many transactions to push (100 per block)
it is not a one time problem,rather a recurrent event when some a-holes artificially congest the network
the general bitcoin public lack of information about bitcoin fees doesn't help either
plus blockchain.info setting recommended dynamic fees below needed adds to continuous congestions  

[1Referee]

But how will bitcoin, being promoted
as a cheap payment method alternatives for doing micro-transaction?
How will it reach mass adoption with the current situation?

Others might shy away and will not use bitcoin as alternative payment.

Though I'm still clinging on hope that it will be mass adopted and enjoy by a lot of people globally!!!

Back in early 2013 when I started with using Bitcoin I was sending basically every transaction without any fees, and nearly all transactions were getting confirmed with the next block. In that situation you could say that Bitcoin was perfectly as tool for micro transactions. Now it's greatly different. Don't forget that Bitcoin has more to offer than just serving as currency tool.

I use Bitcoin mainly for the following purposes;

# Investments.
# Store of value.
# Transferring money from one place to another.
# To purchase digital goods with Bitcoin from the registrar I use.

I never used Bitcoin as micro transacting tool, so for me it's not a big deal.