Transfer Balance Of QT To Electrum Fee Query

[seafarer124]

Have just transferred the balance of my BTC QT Wallet to Electrum.

I had QT wallet set at 0.0005 as the fee.

A message popped up saying I had insufficient funds as the fee is 0.00055.

After amending the amount to transfer with the new fee another message popped up saying the fee is 0.0045 which goes to the miners, I clicked OK and the balance was sent. 

I had a balance in my QT wallet of 25.13902931 before any fees are deducted.

I received 25.13352931 in the Electrum wallet, there is a balance left in QT of 0.001

I am now confused what the fee should be set at when you do a transfer.  My Electrum wallet is set on 0.0005.

This is the first time I have "Sent" Bitcoins.

Any explanation would be greatly appreciated.

[Barek]

It's probably easiest to read over this:

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Transaction_fees

[seafarer124]

Sorry, I am still confused after reading the link.

Nearly everything I have read previously refers to 0.0005 as a fee.

The link says if "Outputs" are 0.01btc or above there is no fee.

This sentence - "Note that a typical transaction is 500 bytes, so the typical transaction fee for low-priority transactions is 0.0001 BTC, regardless of the number of bitcoins sent."

How is a typical transaction calculated?

I am not that technical with all the jargon. 

I would like to ensure that when I "Send" in future I attach the correct fee.

Any guidance in layman's terms would be great.

[deepceleron]

The default minimum per-kB fee was reduced a few months ago to 0.0001 bitcoins. You don't need to specify a larger fee that 0 in the Bitcoin-Qt options unless you want to be generous or want to pay for higher priority processing than default. The minimum fee will be calculated and added automatically when required.

Completely emptying a wallet can take several attempts to discover the correct amount before sending. First try to send the full balance, and see what the fee is. Then reduce the amount you are sending by this fee. When you attempt to send again, see if amount + fee is sending your whole wallet balance.

It is probable that no fee would have been required if you were completely sending all 25BTC at once (with no 0.001 change back to your wallet) if the coins had sat in your wallet for a day.

[seafarer124]

The default minimum per-kB fee was reduced a few months ago to 0.0001 bitcoins. You don't need to specify a larger fee that 0 in the Bitcoin-Qt options unless you want to be generous or want to pay for higher priority processing than default. The minimum fee will be calculated and added automatically when required.

Completely emptying a wallet can take several attempts to discover the correct amount before sending. First try to send the full balance, and see what the fee is. Then reduce the amount you are sending by this fee. When you attempt to send again, see if amount + fee is sending your whole wallet balance.

It is probable that no fee would have been required if you were completely sending all 25BTC at once (with no 0.001 change back to your wallet) if the coins had sat in your wallet for a day.

QT prompts regarding fees, does Electrum do the same?

Have not sent from Electrum yet.

I don't want BTC stuck for days if I give the wrong fee.

[seafarer124]

Just playing with QT to see if I could send the 0.001 remaining balance.

The transaction was sent, I received 0.0008 after the fee of 0.0002.

Also, why does the client have a drop-down box to set a fee if the fee changes all the time?

[deepceleron]

... why does the client have a drop-down box to set a fee if the fee changes all the time?

The fee doesn't change all the time, the minimum fee has been reduced twice in the history of Bitcoin to keep it in parity with market valuation of currency.

The minimum fee is a mechanism to prevent frivolous transactions or network spam. If all transactions were free, it would be trivial to send many tiny transactions over and over simply to cause network disruption.

The inclusion of a transaction in the blockchain by miners, making them recognized and permanent, is based on many rules, but equivalent transactions are served in a first-come basis. You can encourage prompt blockchain inclusion by offering more in fees than other transactions, which is adjustable in your client. The Bitcoin software that miners use promotes priority inclusion of transactions when they include more than the minimum fee.