Bitcoin fees

[theprobe]

Hey guys,

So obvious noob here, just dipping me feet into the world of cryptocurrency. To play around, I put 30 euros into Kraken and bought some bitcoin. I opened a wallet then at blockchain.info and went to transfer my BTC from kraken only to find there was a charge of .001 BTC which today works out at 4.80. Is this not crazy? I thought the whole attraction of cryptocurrency was no central authority skimming off the top. How is it ever going to work if a transaction costs that? I guess I am missing something really obvious here, or am on the wrong exchange, I dunno, maybe someone can explain it.

Thanks,
Probe.

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[Reise]

Kraken brokers apply fees.
It's not like you can run such things as exchange websites without needing to finance it.

Though indeed yes, it's really high. Doesn't seem to correlate with Kraken claimed fees schedule by the way, it's probably made to make people maintain their Bitcoins on their platform.

[devans]

A withdrawal fee of Ƀ 0.001 does match Kraken's fee schedule, though I agree that it is much higher than it needs to be.

Even taking the cost of consolidating deposits into account, a standard transaction shouldn't cost more than about Ƀ 0.0003. That number would be even lower if transactions are batched, like Kraken does.

[MaleKing]

Exchanges have this standard 0.0001 bitcoin fee. But when making transfers from one wallet to another (not exchanges), the fees should be lower.

[thinkpad99]

Kraken brokers apply fees.
It's not like you can run such things as exchange websites without needing to finance it.

Though indeed yes, it's really high. Doesn't seem to correlate with Kraken claimed fees schedule by the way, it's probably made to make people maintain their Bitcoins on their platform.

I have heard so many opinions about Kraken that I do not know what to think about it myself. How many people have so many opinions. What do you think about this? I'm curious because I've always had it as a good platform, and people say it's getting worse.

[Welsh]

I have heard so many opinions about Kraken that I do not know what to think about it myself. How many people have so many opinions. What do you think about this? I'm curious because I've always had it as a good platform, and people say it's getting worse.

There's always going to be people complaining about every service and the negative comments are normally the ones that are heard. You can always check out: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=290799.0

That has some up to date discussion on the service.

[btc2y]

Kraken brokers apply fees.
It's not like you can run such things as exchange websites without needing to finance it.

Though indeed yes, it's really high. Doesn't seem to correlate with Kraken claimed fees schedule by the way, it's probably made to make people maintain their Bitcoins on their platform.

I have heard so many opinions about Kraken that I do not know what to think about it myself. How many people have so many opinions. What do you think about this? I'm curious because I've always had it as a good platform, and people say it's getting worse.

This fee probably will cover the mining fee (it is around $4 for fast transaction).
Probably that is why they have it fixed there, so they could get something for them too.
After all there is a service they provide and it needs funding, also if you keep funds there it's better for them.
This amount of fee will cover the variance of mining fee, as from time to time it is different.

When BTC was under $1000 this fee was the same (as it is the max mining fee it could be) and back then it was like $0.1 then everyone was happy....

[Fitzyjay]

Do some research I am very new to Bitcoin and before I made my first purchase, I Looked at all the exchanges available to me in my region and made my decision based on that. How frequently do you plan to make withdrawals? 4.80$ on a transaction of 2k-3k is a minimal percentage. A flat withdrawal fee is much more beneficial than a % of coins withdrawn. It's far more secure to keep your coins in your own wallet, I waited until I had X amount of coin before making a withdrawal to mitigate the amounts of times I need to do so. Consider your risk tolerance! The longer you store your coins within an exchange  obviously the risk is greater. Is less risk worth the fees? My opinion anyways I hope it helps!