The Effect Of BitCoin Fees Dropping Significantly

[TheBartender]

Not sure how many people noticed but the cost of sending BitCoin has dropped significantly of late. One of the biggest complaints about BitCoin vs altcoins is the speed in the cost. Lightning is supposed to solve the speed issue and it appears that the cost issue isn't so much of a problem these days.

The average cost was about $26 but now it's down to about $3.

My question is what effect do you think this will have on altcoins? In my view, this makes BitCoin more attractive. And secondly, does anyone believe this is a long-term change (the drop in price) or is this merely temporary?

[squatter]

Not sure how many people noticed but the cost of sending BitCoin has dropped significantly of late. One of the biggest complaints about BitCoin vs altcoins is the speed in the cost. Lightning is supposed to solve the speed issue and it appears that the cost issue isn't so much of a problem these days.

The average cost was about $26 but now it's down to about $3.

Who the hell is still paying $3? For median-sized transactions (~226 bytes), I'm spending closer to $0.02!

In terms of BTC-denominated fees, this is the lowest fees have ever been outside the context of priority transactions. Here's a transaction, just confirmed, that paid 0.71 sat/byte! BTC micropayments are back with a vengeance.

My question is what effect do you think this will have on altcoins? In my view, this makes BitCoin more attractive. And secondly, does anyone believe this is a long-term change (the drop in price) or is this merely temporary?

I think the drop in congestion is a combination of multiple factors: 1) the market dying down lead to less deposit/withdrawal activity on exchanges, 2) wallets are improving their fee estimation algorithms, 3) exchanges are batching transactions and implementing Segwit, 4) it's probable that a significant spam attack has ended.

The low fees (and down the road, a successful Lightning Network) should definitely take some luster away from altcoins that are focused on fast, cheap payments. I expect on-chain fees to rise again, so it's a good idea to consolidate ouputs now while fees are low.

[entrepmind23]

The low fees (and down the road, a successful Lightning Network) should definitely take some luster away from altcoins that are focused on fast, cheap payments. I expect on-chain fees to rise again, so it's a good idea to consolidate ouputs now while fees are low.

Though the lightning network may drop the fees further, nowadays would be a good opportunity to transfer bitcoin because the fees are lower. Many opt to change to other currency first before transferring paying trading fee but now, they can just directly transfer bitcoin to bitcoin because of the lower fees. Supporters of other coins that always use the fee as a reason to degrade bitcoin just can't use that reason anymore nowadays and this would be good for bitcoin community.

Price of bitcoin I think is also one of the reason why the fee is low and network is not that congested because bitcoin is still recovering and now back below $10k so there isn't that much motivation and hype to make others buy it again creating a network congestion. I believe segwit has been one of the reason as well for this low fee.

[Asuspawer09]

Not sure how many people noticed but the cost of sending BitCoin has dropped significantly of late. One of the biggest complaints about BitCoin vs altcoins is the speed in the cost. Lightning is supposed to solve the speed issue and it appears that the cost issue isn't so much of a problem these days.

The average cost was about $26 but now it's down to about $3.

My question is what effect do you think this will have on altcoins? In my view, this makes BitCoin more attractive. And secondly, does anyone believe this is a long-term change (the drop in price) or is this merely temporary?

I do not see bitcoin drastically falling down. What am I seeing is a sort of an up and down of price. By that this is severely a maintenance for them. By that, losing its price is a bit hurtful for a while but later on we'll see how worth it would it be.

[npkafle]

I think this will open way to newer coins. Transferring BTC has been painful since mid last year. I paid $23 to transfer some small transactions of approx. $1200 worth. Its almost 2% of total amount.

[pinkflower]

My question is what effect do you think this will have on altcoins? In my view, this makes BitCoin more attractive. And secondly, does anyone believe this is a long-term change (the drop in price) or is this merely temporary?

Nothing. Some altcoins will continue to gain demand and lose demand in the market, the same as any speculative assets trading in any market.

Its temporary. As long as there is a limit in the block size, the fees will fluctuate as usage increases or decreases.

[arcadian]

Great info, the main reason I stayed away from buying BTC for participation in ICOs and buying altcoins was its transaction fee. I chose ETH instead for low low tx fees and speed. Gonna check out BTC soon on the coinbase

EDIT: Just checked the BTC tx fees on coinbase and it is significantly lower that it was. I had 0.0006 BTC in account and was not able to send it anywhere since the fees were way higher than the value I got. This is a great improvement though the speed is still slow but I will keep an eye on these new changes

[carlisle1]

Not sure how many people noticed but the cost of sending BitCoin has dropped significantly of late. One of the biggest complaints about BitCoin vs altcoins is the speed in the cost. Lightning is supposed to solve the speed issue and it appears that the cost issue isn't so much of a problem these days.

The average cost was about $26 but now it's down to about $3.

My question is what effect do you think this will have on altcoins? In my view, this makes BitCoin more attractive. And secondly, does anyone believe this is a long-term change (the drop in price) or is this merely temporary?

i guess this is because theres no congestion this days and thats why fees lowered and for sure lightning network has something do abiut this,i dont know if this is temporary or permanent but for me whats important is the effect of lower fees may rise the bitcoin price again,those investors who transferred in altcoin may come back again

[Lovecove]

There are still many, many alts, even privacy alts, that offer better transaction fees and anonymity than antiquated btc rn.

BTC really has to step its game up if it wants to compete evenly.

You have new alts with privacy features with fees in the cents when sending thousands of dollars worth in coin.

But then again, not everyone has an alt wallet. Whereas most crypto people have btc wallets. Also not all exchanges have the alt you're trying to exchange, whereas virtually all crypto exchanges have btc walletse.

So the pros and cons aside... I still think alts have a fee advantage over btc.

[jtipt]

And secondly, does anyone believe this is a long-term change (the drop in price) or is this merely temporary?

It's temporary. It may last for long, even several months but it's always temporary. If we see another bull. Run to $20k the transactions will increase along with that, and mempool will become congested again. Right now there are very few transactions compared to what it was 1-2 months ago. This is the primary reason for the drop in fees, while yes segwit helped a lot but still segwit adoption is way too less.

[Thecryptocurrency09]

Not sure how many people noticed but the cost of sending BitCoin has dropped significantly of late. One of the biggest complaints about BitCoin vs altcoins is the speed in the cost. Lightning is supposed to solve the speed issue and it appears that the cost issue isn't so much of a problem these days.

The average cost was about $26 but now it's down to about $3.

My question is what effect do you think this will have on altcoins? In my view, this makes BitCoin more attractive. And secondly, does anyone believe this is a long-term change (the drop in price) or is this merely temporary?

Right now, I don't really see how bitcoin significally falling down. What I am seeing is a normal view of bitcoin's manipulation or maintenance. This may take time yet it won't ve really a big basis for it. What is really is all about is not the fall but the changes on it which is good.

[Beefcake]

I think it is important, but not the deciding factor for alts.  I suspect there were network attacks for political reasons like what bitmain did before.  Its strange to try and damage the coin like this!

I think the most important thing, is that new adopters right now are getting in hoping to make the kinds of returns that early adopters enjoyed.  So they don't want to pay $10k for bitcoins, they want to pay a few pennies for whatever alt catches their attention.  Some of them might even choose correctly!  There is lots of money to be made everywhere in cryptos right now.

Eventually people will use it without thinking about it too much, like paypal or whatever, but until then its going to continue to be a roller coaster ride.  And there will alts with significant market cap from here on.  Bitcoin is no longer the only(ish) game in town so I expect the popularity of some alts to continue, especially those with novel features (compared to bitcoin) such as etherium, or the 'old' stalwarts like litecoin.

[pooya87]

~
I think the drop in congestion is a combination of multiple factors: 1) the market dying down lead to less deposit/withdrawal activity on exchanges, 2) wallets are improving their fee estimation algorithms, 3) exchanges are batching transactions and implementing Segwit, 4) it's probable that a significant spam attack has ended.

since there were 100k unconfirmed transactions and now it is only 2000ish i am going to say it was most probably a spam attack against bitcoin.
1) the "dying down" similar to big rises will lead to MORE deposit and withdrawals on exchanges. people want to sell and others want to buy because price is down. and it is only a small percentage rise. as i said it was 100k versus current 2k
2) still doesn't explain number of unconfirmed transactions
3+4) this two i agree with.

[SiDtHeBeSt]

Not sure how many people noticed but the cost of sending BitCoin has dropped significantly of late. One of the biggest complaints about BitCoin vs altcoins is the speed in the cost. Lightning is supposed to solve the speed issue and it appears that the cost issue isn't so much of a problem these days.

The average cost was about $26 but now it's down to about $3.

My question is what effect do you think this will have on altcoins? In my view, this makes BitCoin more attractive. And secondly, does anyone believe this is a long-term change (the drop in price) or is this merely temporary?

Yeah, the fees has surely dropped alot, which might make bitcoin more attractive and invite more number of investors. But, the fees might go high again in the times of high traffic. I saw the fees went down a few days ago when bitcoin's price had become a bit more stable and had stopped dropping down further, but as soon as it dropped a little bit more the fees were high again. So, I think this might be a temporary thing as there is not much of a traffic.

And secondly, does anyone believe this is a long-term change (the drop in price) or is this merely temporary?

It's temporary. It may last for long, even several months but it's always temporary. If we see another bull. Run to $20k the transactions will increase along with that, and mempool will become congested again. Right now there are very few transactions compared to what it was 1-2 months ago. This is the primary reason for the drop in fees, while yes segwit helped a lot but still segwit adoption is way too less.

Exactly, if bitcoins go as high as 20k USD again, definitely alot of transactions would be made and it would cause congestion, which would result in higher fees again.

[rose9696]

Not sure how many people noticed but the cost of sending BitCoin has dropped significantly of late. One of the biggest complaints about BitCoin vs altcoins is the speed in the cost. Lightning is supposed to solve the speed issue and it appears that the cost issue isn't so much of a problem these days.

The average cost was about $26 but now it's down to about $3.

My question is what effect do you think this will have on altcoins? In my view, this makes BitCoin more attractive. And secondly, does anyone believe this is a long-term change (the drop in price) or is this merely temporary?

Yeah, the fees has surely dropped alot, which might make bitcoin more attractive and invite more number of investors. But, the fees might go high again in the times of high traffic. I saw the fees went down a few days ago when bitcoin's price had become a bit more stable and had stopped dropping down further, but as soon as it dropped a little bit more the fees were high again. So, I think this might be a temporary thing as there is not much of a traffic.

And secondly, does anyone believe this is a long-term change (the drop in price) or is this merely temporary?

It's temporary. It may last for long, even several months but it's always temporary. If we see another bull. Run to $20k the transactions will increase along with that, and mempool will become congested again. Right now there are very few transactions compared to what it was 1-2 months ago. This is the primary reason for the drop in fees, while yes segwit helped a lot but still segwit adoption is way too less.

Exactly, if bitcoins go as high as 20k USD again, definitely alot of transactions would be made and it would cause congestion, which would result in higher fees again.

certainly so. The higher the bitcoin cost, the higher the transaction fee. In addition, the transaction time will be significantly longer. However, we can buy bitcoin at a low price and sell high. If your profit is $ 10000 then the $ 26 fee for the transaction will not be a problem. So it is important that we make a lot of money from investing. We will not have to worry about transaction fees.

[Thefrolly]

This is temporary because bitcoin transactions have also become less with its value. Since not anything modified with Bitcoin, it means that much less people are using Bitcoin to make new transactions. It truly is the only reason why fees are lower (due to the fact there's enough room inside the tiny blocks).

[chidrawarster]

I never knew about this. But for me its good news and people will start focusing on btc considering the low fees and higher returns on their investment if held long term.I also see many people still complaining about the higher fees , i would definitely inform them of the lowered fees that would make them exciting as well. May be this has happened due to market at low and also exchanges estimating some normal fees which in turn would increase the transactions volume and hamper the spam as well.

[yepaiyique2]

BTC cost reduction should be a good news for the digital encryption market!

The reduction in transaction costs accelerates the frequency of transactions and the market will recover slowly.

[pinkflower]

Heres a thought.

If BTC was spammed, and today's mempool count is supposed to be "normal", then does that mean the usage of BTC hasnt grown that much?

[toti.]

The average cost of sending a bitcoin transaction is cheaper than it's been in a year and a half, showing the price isn't the cryptocurrency's only unpredictable metric these days.

But with all the debate about growing fees, this might come as a surprise. After all, it wasn't so long ago that fees were so high a group of prominent investors and miners created a whole new version of bitcoin mostly to keep fees lower.

This is because bitcoin is a software that requires all of the many thousands of computers that run it to stay in sync. To do so easily, there's a limit on how much data the network can process at intervals, and users need to pay more to get their transactions in at times of congestion.