Early BTC adopters still hodling?

[olumyd]

Just have a few questions for those who bought/mined BTC early in the days when things weren't this crowded.

1. How long did it take for a transaction to be confirmed?

2. What were the other issues experienced apart from Hardware complications and energy requirements?

[olumyd]

I still need some help with the topic. Trying to see how much has changed, not just depending on statistical data alone but a lot more on real life experiences.

[early_adopter]

Transaction is a lot more faster these days compared to the initial days of bitcoin. Depending on the platform of exchange you are using.

[sam.purg]

the transactions confirmation of mining btc is not like a turtle... some of the transaction of mining platform are to very slow of confirmations just like my miming sites 2 month for verification 

[batang_bitcoin]

1. How long did it take for a transaction to be confirmed?

Transactions before were so quick that it won't take 2 minutes IIRC and I was able to catch up those days that there's no fee when you send bitcoin. It is because there were few users unlike today.

2. What were the other issues experienced apart from Hardware complications and energy requirements?

Can't say on this matter but before the earliest time, you can mine even with your laptop.

[mk4]

1. How long did it take for a transaction to be confirmed?

I was in to bitcoin when it was at sub $700. Transactions were super quick, with pretty much almost-free fees. Transactions so fast and so so cheap that I was playing around with some sats(that I've collected using faucets), moving them between multiple wallets multiple times without even caring about the transaction fees.

[BitcoinNewbie15]

1. How long did it take for a transaction to be confirmed?

I was in to bitcoin when it was at sub $700. Transactions were super quick, with pretty much almost-free fees. Transactions so fast and so so cheap that I was playing around with some sats(that I've collected using faucets), moving them between multiple wallets multiple times without even caring about the transaction fees.

Transaction times haven't slowed down compared to how fast they are currently. Bitcoin is designed to have a new block found once every 10 minutes. With transaction volume today being where it was in 2015/2016 usually the mempool can get cleaned out in one single block. Because of this transaction times arepretty much the same.

[mk4]

1. How long did it take for a transaction to be confirmed?

I was in to bitcoin when it was at sub $700. Transactions were super quick, with pretty much almost-free fees. Transactions so fast and so so cheap that I was playing around with some sats(that I've collected using faucets), moving them between multiple wallets multiple times without even caring about the transaction fees.

Transaction times haven't slowed down compared to how fast they are currently. Bitcoin is designed to have a new block found once every 10 minutes. With transaction volume today being where it was in 2015/2016 usually the mempool can get cleaned out in one single block. Because of this transaction times arepretty much the same.

True. But comparing the speed in conjunction with the fees in the past? That's a different story. Bitcoin transactions are definitely a lot cheaper now compared to fees last December, but the fees are still significantly more expensive now compared to the fees before(though also taking note that bitcoin was also significantly cheaper back then)

[Herbert2020]

1. How long did it take for a transaction to be confirmed?

I was in to bitcoin when it was at sub $700. Transactions were super quick, with pretty much almost-free fees. Transactions so fast and so so cheap that I was playing around with some sats(that I've collected using faucets), moving them between multiple wallets multiple times without even caring about the transaction fees.

Transaction times haven't slowed down compared to how fast they are currently. Bitcoin is designed to have a new block found once every 10 minutes. With transaction volume today being where it was in 2015/2016 usually the mempool can get cleaned out in one single block. Because of this transaction times arepretty much the same.

True. But comparing the speed in conjunction with the fees in the past? That's a different story. Bitcoin transactions are definitely a lot cheaper now compared to fees last December, but the fees are still significantly more expensive now compared to the fees before(though also taking note that bitcoin was also significantly cheaper back then)

bitcoin fees in early days were something like 0.01000000BTC at some point. nowadays you are paying 0.00000180BTC for the same transaction.
in USD terms it was pretty much the same considering the price of early days was very low.
and since we are talking about bitcoin i'd say the fees were super expensive back then.

[olumyd]

1. How long did it take for a transaction to be confirmed?

I was in to bitcoin when it was at sub $700. Transactions were super quick, with pretty much almost-free fees. Transactions so fast and so so cheap that I was playing around with some sats(that I've collected using faucets), moving them between multiple wallets multiple times without even caring about the transaction fees.

Transaction times haven't slowed down compared to how fast they are currently. Bitcoin is designed to have a new block found once every 10 minutes. With transaction volume today being where it was in 2015/2016 usually the mempool can get cleaned out in one single block. Because of this transaction times arepretty much the same.

True. But comparing the speed in conjunction with the fees in the past? That's a different story. Bitcoin transactions are definitely a lot cheaper now compared to fees last December, but the fees are still significantly more expensive now compared to the fees before(though also taking note that bitcoin was also significantly cheaper back then)

bitcoin fees in early days were something like 0.01000000BTC at some point. nowadays you are paying 0.00000180BTC for the same transaction.
in USD terms it was pretty much the same considering the price of early days was very low.
and since we are talking about bitcoin i'd say the fees were super expensive back then.

This:

...since we are talking about bitcoin I'd say the fees were super expensive back then.

Seems logical since fees are somewhat pegged to the USD value (in a way) and not actual percentages of bitcoin transacted or the number of bitcoin transactions performed per time. I think it has something to do with the difficulty.

Not sure about this, but anyone with a critical but explicit explanation should help out. My thoughts are:

So relatively, fees should be like tolls and not relative to the number of traffic. However, when BTC started its bull run in fall of 2017 through early 2018, fees were also increased and this was due to traffic. I think it was just an unusual anomaly. But is there a specific calculation for fees?

[MainIbem]

From My experience, not much have changed between the time I got into bitcoin. Transaction time has not changed so much either. But there has been more ways to transact on bitcoin with so many exchanges and BTC pairs. Back then,  blockchain.info and coinbase wallet held sway. Now it is different. Also, bitcoin was the predominant cryptocurrency but now you have several altcoins that you can conveniently trade.

[Pursuer]

So relatively, fees should be like tolls and not relative to the number of traffic. However, when BTC started its bull run in fall of 2017 through early 2018, fees were also increased and this was due to traffic. I think it was just an unusual anomaly. But is there a specific calculation for fees?

fees have nothing to do with "traffic" or "high USD value" of bitcoin. it has not changed ever since fees were introduced to bitcoin. fees are there to prevent spam attacks, practically to prevent them from being able to go on forever since it makes them more and more expensive to attack bitcoin.

obviously the amount of fee you pay first depends on the size of your transaction. if your tx size is 180 bytes you will pay a lot less fee than if your tx size is 100000 bytes (~100 kilo bytes).
also you can think of fee as a competition for a place in the block. there is always going to be a limited block size whether it is 1 MB or 100MB. when it is empty you can pay the minimal amount or even 0 and get that space. but when that space is full you will have to compete with others and pay a higher fee to be able to get that space.

the reason why fees sometimes go up during bull runs is that there are more transactions being made on chain so the blocks are full since there is more transactions. you can call this "traffic" but it is a traffic that is higher than capacity. which is why there is more competition and the fees go up. this can increase both on rises and falls as people make more transactions in both cases.
however in 2017 alongside that competition we had a serious case of spam attack which made everything 10 times worse.

[squatz1]

Without a doubt a good number of the people that originally got into bitcoin for the tech, aren't people that care about the price. They're in it for the long haul to see bitcoin thrive as a currency, not to see some sort of FIAT gains. These are the same people that hate fiat and want to see it fall -- do you really think they're going to be fine with going back to fiat for some fiat? (While this may sound confusing, people aren't going to forget about WHY they joined for some cash)

So yes, these people got in for the tech and most likely are going to stay here for it.

[Radio-Active]

hmm i think most of early adopter of bitcoin was selling their coin when it the price spiking some years ago.
Or there are some early adopters that have a balance in their wallet, but they forget their key or lost their wallet file.
Only few of them are lucky because they are still holding it now.

[shafi alam]

1. don't know.
2. sound problem( you can't here your voice if you use asicminer), Electricity cost is too much.

[walemil]

Many of the people who are great supporters of bitcoin are the early adopters. These guys are made, judging from the price of Bitcoin in the past. As a matter of fact, they cannot sell in a hurry and they can HODL for as long as possible because they have nothing to lose.

[almaroof]

Majority of them most have sold it..too many piza lovers in cryptosystem. The very few hodlers must be living comfortably in their mansions now

[earnestoshodi]

I did not mine in the early days, but it is likely the transactions were faster as there were less traffic and you could actually mine with just your computer.

[Rainbow009]

I think most early adopters would have probably sold off and pulled profits during any of the uptrends. Most might have bought back I'm when the price went down, waiting for another bull.

[smartbitcoininvestor]

It's a lot faster thanks to SegWit and SegWit2x coming soon, not to mention the Lightning Network. There have been spikes where a large number of people are sending Bitcoins at one time where transactions may be slow, but it doesn't seem like it will be a major problem over the coming years. Just keep holding because it will probably be used as a store of value rather than cash.