Bitcoin Fees Can Be Cheaper Depending on the Timezone

[hugeblack]

In this new study by Diar, a company based on the analysis of digital currency data[1], stated in its February 13, 2019 edition, that Bitcoin transactions fees charges vary according to the regions in which users live and timezones.

According to the study[2], found that the fees for sending 1 BTC vary considerably during the day, as spending money during the day "UTC" costs far more than spending overnight.
This is different for those living in Australia and Japan.

The graph shows more:
[Fees per Kb More Than Double-Up From 12AM vs 1PM UTC (Sats)]

[1] https://diar.co/
[2] https://diar.co/volume-3-issue-5/#5

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[proTECH77]

What? awesome information; never know that Bitcoin transaction in my country timezone differs from others. Recently i did a transaction with some merchant about 6:00PM country timezone and wondered if the fees were correct but now have a clear understanding of what actually transpire. Thanks for sharing.

[squatter]

Interesting, so transaction congestion seems to spike during midday to afternoon, UTC? I wonder what that implies about European vs. American usage and if these findings could be corroborated another way.

It would be nice to see if this were the case over the long term, but with only a months worth of data, it could be a temporary anomaly.

[bitbunnny]

I have to admit this is the new information for me. So, depending on the timezone you can save or pay more for exact amount of Bitcoin transactions. I wonder what are the reasons for that. It would be also interesting to see how that affects the global distribution of transactions.

[Upgrade00]

Does it depend on how fast you want your transaction completed? i.e, if I try with a specific amount it would be slower in the day than at night. Or is there an amount that would be too low to get a transaction completed?

This study shows that majority of miners are situated in countries using 'UTC' timezone or a very close time range.

[cizatext]

This is the first time am hearing that the cost of carrying out transactions and it fees on the bitcoin network is being decided by time zone, I have not carried out any personal research on this but since the bitcoin network has now central control I believe so it is the transactions has not time zone differences

[anu1908]

This is the first time am hearing that the cost of carrying out transactions and it fees on the bitcoin network is being decided by time zone, I have not carried out any personal research on this but since the bitcoin network has now central control I believe so it is the transactions has not time zone differences

it is not decided by timezone per se. the graph/study simply means there are more users on specific timezone that is more active and is a majority (not sure how many) of bitcoin users, and that's why there are more transaction which can leads to higher fees. if there are enough users across the globe, the difference won't be high I believe.

[vennali]

In this new study by Diar, a company based on the analysis of digital currency data[1], stated in its February 13, 2019 edition, that Bitcoin transactions fees charges vary according to the regions in which users live and timezones.

According to the study[2], found that the fees for sending 1 BTC vary considerably during the day, as spending money during the day "UTC" costs far more than spending overnight.
This is different for those living in Australia and Japan.

The graph shows more:
[Fees per Kb More Than Double-Up From 12AM vs 1PM UTC (Sats)]

[1] https://diar.co/
[2] https://diar.co/volume-3-issue-5/#5

By Sending 1BTC with "fees" I think you mean the transaction getting confirmed with the next block. In that case, it completely depends on the time when the most transactions happen. According to your finding's it is in the afternoon UTC but this cant always be consistent. I'll keep that in mind when I do my transfers though. Might save some cents here and there. Interesting find nonetheless.

[LimLims]

Compered to Earlier Days(when Bitcoin price used to be 10,000$ or more) now the fees are a bit less we can all say that.
Earlier at that point of time it really dissatisfied us about the fees but now the fees are more stable compare to earlier days.
As far the OP is saying that it depends upon the timezone to set the fees, then i am completely agree with him.
Many people at different places are using different Fees I can witness.

[Vaskiy]

That's a good information to the bitcoin users. I believe this is due to the network congestion variation with time. Another thing it can also happen depending on the location, because on areas of increased transaction more transactions get stuck to the network even though they've placed almost similar transaction fee. Earlier transaction fee was termed a big issue, over the time through updates this was sorted.

[pretius99]

in my opinion it is only natural that during the day the fee is quite large because it is a rush hour and the blockchain officer must work hard to confirm all transactions. while the transaction night is only a little because many people are already sleeping so the blockchain officers don't work too hard for it

[buwaytress]

Does it depend on how fast you want your transaction completed? i.e, if I try with a specific amount it would be slower in the day than at night. Or is there an amount that would be too low to get a transaction completed?

This study shows that majority of miners are situated in countries using 'UTC' timezone or a very close time range.

The study doesn't show where majority of miners are... it's suggesting that people who transact are generally living closer to UTC/greenwich, that is, in Europe. But this assumes most Bitcoin users make transactions during daylight hours or working times. It's just a guidance, I've never noticed any real difference, feels random to me.

Also, how fast you want your transaction completed will always determine how much you want to pay in comparison to how much others are paying at the same time you transact.

While average fees have been very low for many months (and getting lower), you should still always check what the queue looks like and use estimates to determine a suitable fee. Personally, I've been just paying 1sat/byte fees for everything - they confirm within hours, if not within blocks. And if I need it urgently, RBF default on all my txs mean I can just pay a higher fee.

Lots of guidance about estimating fees. You can google. 1 example here to start off, but you can find better ones and make your own estimation.

[cfif123]

in my opinion it is only natural that during the day the fee is quite large because it is a rush hour and the blockchain officer must work hard to confirm all transactions. while the transaction night is only a little because many people are already sleeping so the blockchain officers don't work too hard for it

yes I think that bitcoin is declining and cheap because of time and non-kundusif trading factors

[o_e_l_e_o]

You can compare the data from this study with the data generated at Johoe's Mempool Statistics page: https://jochen-hoenicke.de/queue/#1,2w. Here's a random 2 week sample I took from last September (click for full size):



The dates along the bottom are at midnight (00:00) UTC. So you can see from this sample, there is a spike in fees on most days between around 10:00 and 18:00 (when Europe and then later America are awake), at which point they start reducing, and hit a low point around 01:00 - 04:00 UTC. This certainly ties in with the data from OP's study.

It's something I've casually noticed, but never given much though to. But considering it now, I wouldn't have expected such a constant and similar drop given that China has more people than Europe and North America combined.

[gentlemand]

It's something I've always been vaguely aware of. At high fee times I tended to wait until the wee small hours.

It's a v wobbly metric but look at the distribution of nodes - https://bitnodes.earn.com

The only major concentration outside the Europe and N America is China and Singapore. China will be miners. Dunno about Singapore.

[o_e_l_e_o]

It's a v wobbly metric but look at the distribution of nodes - https://bitnodes.earn.com

The only major concentration outside the Europe and N America is China and Singapore. China will be miners. Dunno about Singapore.

Regardless of where the nodes or the miners are situated, there seems to be no clear daily variation of pattern to the global hashrate - https://data.bitcoinity.org/bitcoin/hashrate/30d?g=15&r=hour&t=l.

As buwaytress points out, these data aren't showing you where the miners or the nodes are located - instead they are showing you when the majority of bitcoin transactions hit the network, which seems to be early afternoon UTC plus or minus a few hours. Perhaps this is is because of a cross-over effect: 2pm UTC is 10pm for China, 10/11am for the east coast of North America, and 6am for the west coast.

[1Referee]

It's something I've always been vaguely aware of. At high fee times I tended to wait until the wee small hours.

What do you consider high fees? $0.05? $0.10? $0.20?

In most cases people only conduct one, perhaps two transactions per day. People tend to overexaggerate when it comes to fees just to save a penny or two in the process, and that while adding an extra few pennies significantly helps making sure that miners pick up your transaction and not someone else's with a slightly higher fee.

The highest fee I paid in 2018/2019 was $0.10 and that was just to incentivize miners to pick up my transaction and have it included in the next block. Saving like $10-$20 if you have to consolidate a shit ton of inputs, then ok, but when it comes to standard transactions it just isn't.

[gentlemand]

What do you consider high fees? $0.05? $0.10? $0.20?

Bucks, not cents. Obviously it hasn't been a proper issue for quite a while now and I'm rarely in a hurry. Many of my txs are made up of tons of inputs so it often adds up to a fair chunk more than the less scattered user.

[hugeblack]

Regardless of where the nodes or the miners are situated, there seems to be no clear daily variation of pattern to the global hashrate - https://data.bitcoinity.org/bitcoin/hashrate/30d?g=15&r=hour&t=l.

The study ignores all influences and focuses on the temporal factor. Countries such as Latin America and Southeast Asia have been found to account for a large part of global transactions, which means there is an increase in tx during the day and lower fees during the evening.

In other words, through your timeline, you can pay much fewer fees.

[CilginCocuk]

I think it's the lowest in China and other countries, because those miners accept every fee.. however, if we look at last year, this year the fee can be sent very cheap bitcoin, I remember to pay $ 30 to send bitcoin last year.