fees and small transactions ??

[drew345]

I know there are discussions on the high transfer fees, so I won't complain about those here. I am trying more to get an understanding...
When I was learning about bitcoin one of the stated benefits was that bitcoin was great for micro transactions. The example given was possibility for someone walking around town to access paid wifi spot as they go for small bitcoins amounts a connection (a hypothetical use). But I just transferred $100 from my coinbase wallet to my copay wallet and the fee was .0011 bitcoin or US$3 .  The fee was not related to amount, seemed to be a set fee. With a $3 wallet to wallet transaction fee, this would never be practical for micro transactions. It's not even feasible for transactions like a $5 cup of coffee.
Am I missing something ?!? How is actually using bitcoins even possible with a $3 fee. Are there some kinds of bitcoins transfers that are lower fee and other higher fee ?  I saw the words "on-chain" and "off-chain", maybe those words are key to different rates of bitcoin transfer fees?
Thank you,
Drew

[coiner2048]

Indeed, transaction fees have made Bitcoin obsolete for small transactions. You're quite right in that regard. However, a number of alt-coins have much lower fees, and faster resolution, ideal for buying a cup of coffee or whatever low-value spend you might have in mind.

[niisarearning]

I was trying to transfer from my unocoin wallet to blockchain because i am having private key and i don't want to sell bitcoin want to keep for long time like investment i wonder one thing the transaction fees is about 0.005 its bit high it was almost my one month faucet earning and there is lots of complaints about time duration in transaction . I have set some were faucets unocoin address now i really regret

[stompix]

Am I missing something ?!?

Yes , all the threads in which this has been explained 100 times over.
It's about scaling. Bitcoin needs to "upgrade" as it has reached it's current limit.
It has been known for years that we will hit this point.

How is actually using bitcoins even possible with a $3 fee.

When you transfer 10000$ it's not that much of a fee isn't it?

Are there some kinds of bitcoins transfers that are lower fee and other higher fee ?

Yes, one with high fees that get confirmed in 10 minutes and ones with low fees that take 3 days

I saw the words "on-chain" and "off-chain", maybe those words are key to different rates of bitcoin transfer fees?

No, nothing to do with fees.
Off chain transactions are not included in the blockchian so they basically aren't carrying a fee at all.

[pooya87]

from last month Coinbase stopped paying the fees for users' transactions that are on-chain and they now charge a fee.[1] however it sounds very strange that they have charged such a big fee for your transaction (0.011BTC) the normal transaction fees that they should take shouldn't be anything bigger than 0.001BTC!

[1] https://support.coinbase.com/customer/portal/articles/815435-does-coinbase-pay-bitcoin-miner-fees-

[OliynyK]

from last month Coinbase stopped paying the fees for users' transactions that are on-chain and they now charge a fee.[1] however it sounds very strange that they have charged such a big fee for your transaction (0.011BTC) the normal transaction fees that they should take shouldn't be anything bigger than 0.001BTC!

There is nothing strange in them charging a higher fees because things have changed drastically and if you really want to get your transactions through within five hours you should pay higher fees and coinbase is not gaining anything with the transaction fees they are charging,but i am not sure whether they are charging 0.011 btc,because the last time i used they were charging around 0.0024 btc so i have to start using light weight wallet for my transactions.

[beerlover]

I saw the words "on-chain" and "off-chain", maybe those words are key to different rates of bitcoin transfer fees?

No. Off-chain transactions will be possible when sender and receiver will be using same web wallets like coinbase/Xapo. (Remember all web wallet providers do not support off-chain transactions). If you and your friend are using Xapo wallets for example, you may transact for zero transaction fees.

Xapo to Xapo / coinbase to coinbase transactions will not hit blockchain, that is the reason we do call it off-chain transactions.

[AiWanChu]

who needs small fees.. Bitcoin is digital gold not some sort of milkbar token 

[xypos]

I know there are discussions on the high transfer fees, so I won't complain about those here. I am trying more to get an understanding...
When I was learning about bitcoin one of the stated benefits was that bitcoin was great for micro transactions. The example given was possibility for someone walking around town to access paid wifi spot as they go for small bitcoins amounts a connection (a hypothetical use). But I just transferred $100 from my coinbase wallet to my copay wallet and the fee was .0011 bitcoin or US$3 .  The fee was not related to amount, seemed to be a set fee. With a $3 wallet to wallet transaction fee, this would never be practical for micro transactions. It's not even feasible for transactions like a $5 cup of coffee.
Am I missing something ?!? How is actually using bitcoins even possible with a $3 fee. Are there some kinds of bitcoins transfers that are lower fee and other higher fee ?  I saw the words "on-chain" and "off-chain", maybe those words are key to different rates of bitcoin transfer fees?
Thank you,
Drew

You're basically 100% right about this.

Bitcoin fees currently are making microtransactions impossible to deal with. The minimum transaction you can send and actually receive something is probably something like 0.001-0.0015 BTC. That figure used t obe significantly lower.

On-chain transfers are transfers on the bitcoin blockchain, and right now takes significant fees. Off chain is basically using a central network like coinbase and there is no fees. But then there is no difference in using paypal and using btc if you were using off chain transfers.

[pooya87]

from last month Coinbase stopped paying the fees for users' transactions that are on-chain and they now charge a fee.[1] however it sounds very strange that they have charged such a big fee for your transaction (0.011BTC) the normal transaction fees that they should take shouldn't be anything bigger than 0.001BTC!

There is nothing strange in them charging a higher fees because things have changed drastically and if you really want to get your transactions through within five hours you should pay higher fees and coinbase is not gaining anything with the transaction fees they are charging,but i am not sure whether they are charging 0.011 btc,because the last time i used they were charging around 0.0024 btc so i have to start using light weight wallet for my transactions.

charging a higher fees is not strange, charging an extremely higher fees (12+ times higher) is strange. and please have in mind that Coinbase is not a regular wallet to receive transactions in one key and spend them from the same key. they pay you from their reserves and if the transaction they sent was big, it is their fault not yours.

[soul-impact]

Indeed, transaction fees have made Bitcoin obsolete for small transactions. You're quite right in that regard. However, a number of alt-coins have much lower fees, and faster resolution, ideal for buying a cup of coffee or whatever low-value spend you might have in mind.

Do you think we should use bitcoin for small cash change transactions? I think no, bitcoin is a great value coin, its use in small transactions is wasteful, instead, we should use it for transactions in different countries, it Still the most convenient currency of all, high value, we do not need to spend too much money.

[Dudeperfect]

I was trying to transfer from my unocoin wallet to blockchain because i am having private key and i don't want to sell bitcoin want to keep for long time like investment i wonder one thing the transaction fees is about 0.005 its bit high it was almost my one month faucet earning and there is lots of complaints about time duration in transaction . I have set some were faucets unocoin address now i really regret

Unocoin has it's pros and cons and I think you should create a cold storage (probably a paper wallet) and use that address for your faucets. If you are earning low amount in your unocoin wallet then it is better to forget it for two or three months and then transfer the accumulated amount to your cold storage wallet. It is not recommended to use web wallets if you are looking to hold bitcoins for the long term.

[magneto]

I know there are discussions on the high transfer fees, so I won't complain about those here. I am trying more to get an understanding...
When I was learning about bitcoin one of the stated benefits was that bitcoin was great for micro transactions. The example given was possibility for someone walking around town to access paid wifi spot as they go for small bitcoins amounts a connection (a hypothetical use). But I just transferred $100 from my coinbase wallet to my copay wallet and the fee was .0011 bitcoin or US$3 .  The fee was not related to amount, seemed to be a set fee. With a $3 wallet to wallet transaction fee, this would never be practical for micro transactions. It's not even feasible for transactions like a $5 cup of coffee.
Am I missing something ?!? How is actually using bitcoins even possible with a $3 fee. Are there some kinds of bitcoins transfers that are lower fee and other higher fee ?  I saw the words "on-chain" and "off-chain", maybe those words are key to different rates of bitcoin transfer fees?
Thank you,
Drew

Bitcoin was indeed used a lot for microtransactions. For example faucets used to be able to provide zero fees. Coinbase used to be able to provide zero fee on chain transactions, and so did Xapo up to this May. The fact that so many legitimate companies are implementing a transaction fee even though they are making a lot of money means that the transaction fee issue is REAL and not just talk.

who needs small fees.. Bitcoin is digital gold not some sort of milkbar token  

What about the people in poorer countries where 0.002 BTC could be their day worth's of work? Wasn't bitcoin supposed to be the solution for these people? But now, they'll lose all of it on tx fees alone.

[Yutikas_11920]

Indeed, by the time I get to know the bitcoin main thing becomes everyone's excitement is the fee that was given is very cheap and also transactions carried out very quickly. But now even the reverse of what I got in the past in understanding bitcoin, actually it is still very possible to micro transactions. Because the receive payment or bear the fee are those who want to buy. So, this is not a problem. Because this is only a problem of calculation of profit alone,