[2017-08-27] Bitcoin Network Fees Remain a Topic of Debate

[tyz]

Bitcoin Network Fees Remain a Topic of Debate

Bitcoin transaction fees have always been a topic of substantial debate. A lot of people feel the average Bitcoin fee is far too high for the regular user. There is a certain truth to this statement, although it also depends on which service is being used. A new screenshot shows how a BitPay transaction charged a fee of 16% of the transaction amount. This goes to show something will need to change sooner or later. With the SegWit scaling solution, such fees should be less of an issue moving forward.

http://www.newsbtc.com/2017/08/27/bitcoin-network-fees-remain-topic-debate/

[Rahar02]

I am not sure how long we have to wait in order to enjoy low fees for every bitcoin transaction, there is no any latest news regarding segwit support from most wallet developers or service platforms such as BitPay. But, unconfirmed transactions has been reduced which few days ago reached over 87K and just 23K right now. There's nothing we can do about it but wait until all clear.
Using cryptocurrencies for traditional payments makes no sense whatsoever right now. SegWit activation on the Bitcoin network will effectively reduce transaction fees over time. Hopefully segwit will be succeed to overcome bitcoin problems.

[hatshepsut93]

Imo, fees are still manageable, you just need to be a bit smart to minimize them. If you are moving dozens or hundreds Bitcoins, than paying 1-3 mBTC fee shouldn't be a problem for you, and as for value transfer, this fee is much more lower than what fiat can offer. If you are doing small transactions, than you should setup a small online wallet for them, because online wallets feature batch transactions with fees around 10k satoshi per transaction. I personally use my Poloniex account for small transactions and when I'm depositing funds to it from other exchanges or services, I'm using altcoins to avoid Bitcoin fees. Of course storing coins online is bad for security, so you should only keep small amounts there.

[bouren]

It is clear that if we need to pay $4 as fee for every transaction, bitcoin can never replace cash. Bitcoin fees issue is needed to solve as soon as possible. Segwit seems one affordable solution therefore it received huge support from folk during lock-in. But that support seems to fade by now as after activation we are still waiting for its success.

[Hackabu]

I guess it depends on what people are used to. Over here in Europe, transaction fees are not really a thing for regular bank transactions. So people (especially the non-techy ones) will obviously ask "Why should I go through all the hassle to use BTC, if I end up with extra transaction costs". If Bitcoin shall remain a niche product, the status quo is OK - but if we wanna go for a mass market adoption, an innovative change is neccesary.

[TraderTimm]

This is all part of BCH's shitty difficulty algorithm, and how it impacts miners switching back and forth.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/6vxbse/we_may_have_to_accept_higher_fees_until_september/

The short of it is, the oscillating difficulty adjustments on BCH's side flip miners back for a few iterations, until the difficulty adjusts in BTC to a much lower rate - which will kill any incentive to mine for BCH. This is a self-reinforcing loop, which puts a lot of downward pressure on BCH price.

So, thanks to Jihan the asshole and Roger the dickhead, we'll have to go through a few cycles of this until the Sept. difficulty adjustment in BTC.

However, it won't persist for long as BCH bleeds lower and becomes marginal at best for anyone to mine on.

[Netnox]

It is clear that if we need to pay $4 as fee for every transaction, bitcoin can never replace cash. Bitcoin fees issue is needed to solve as soon as possible. Segwit seems one affordable solution therefore it received huge support from folk during lock-in. But that support seems to fade by now as after activation we are still waiting for its success.

It is not $4. I have heard about much higher fees for single transactions during the past few days. And I don't think that SegWit is going to resolve this issue permanently. 2 MB block size is simply not enough.

[BitHodler]

It's so obvious that the Bitcoin Cash side is desperately looking to make people shift to their "new and improved Bitcoin" that at this point experience practically no network traffic at all ~ most blocks are near empty.

I wonder what kind of pump they are planning, because at some point I expect them to pump the BCC price so hard, that they want to attract other miners to shift focus.

The first mini pump got the price from 0.06BTC to well over 0.20BTC very recently, but this surely isn't the best they can do with that many extremely wealthy individuals on their side.