New to Bitcoin - What am I missing?

[ericycle]

Finally having some first experiences with Bitcoin, seems very disappointing.

The fees are very high, and it is very slow. This makes it very impractical for a lot of uses. What am I missing?

[AB de Royse777]

Finally having some first experiences with Bitcoin, seems very disappointing.

The fees are very high, and it is very slow. This makes it very impractical for a lot of uses. What am I missing?

You are missing nothing since you are not looking for anything specific.

My suggestion: Spend time on the forum, read the contents in Bitcoin Technical Support, Development & Technical Discussion, Beginners & Help.

You will learn as you go.

Welcome to the community.

[ralle14]

The fees aren't high, the recommended fee right now is below $1 If you don't use the recommended bitcoin wallets you could end up paying more because some wallets don't have the option to customize the fee.

If waiting for a few minutes is slow you could use the lightning network.Once you make more transactions you'll get used to the increased waiting times.

[Artemis3]

Finally having some first experiences with Bitcoin, seems very disappointing.

The fees are very high, and it is very slow. This makes it very impractical for a lot of uses. What am I missing?

LIES. The fees are low and the transactions are super fast next to wire transfers and other payment methods that require days for processing.

Bitcoin has only one fee that matters: 1 sat/B. The rest is ignorant people who fail to use a proper wallet with manual setting of transfer fees.

There is only a small use case where people would need the transfer NOW, and for that LN is filling the void. This requires wallet support. In the meantime don't use it for that if you can't be bothered to wait an hour or so for a very cheap transaction (3¢ like) or a few minutes for something approaching 1$.

[ericycle]

I'm really trying to understand, nothing more.

Litecoin seems a lot faster with much lower fees. Shouldn't it then be more popular than Bitcoin? What are the big advantages of Bitcoin despite these 2 big drawbacks?

[The Cryptovator]

Welcome to the community, sad to hear that you have bad experience with bitcoin from beginning. I believe everything will be fine when you will spend more time on this forum and search on here or Google as much as possible whatever you need. Fees I don't think is very high and its depend on wallet which one are you using right now. On the other hand transaction speed depends on fees how much fees are you using.

[Indamuck]

Finally having some first experiences with Bitcoin, seems very disappointing.

The fees are very high, and it is very slow. This makes it very impractical for a lot of uses. What am I missing?

Bitcoin is mostly just a store of value now, its not able to be a worldwide currency as it stands right now.  But this is enough for me, fundamentals and use case have very little bearing on the price.  It can still have low function and go to the moon.

[RodeoX]

Finally having some first experiences with Bitcoin, seems very disappointing.

The fees are very high, and it is very slow. This makes it very impractical for a lot of uses. What am I missing?

There is only one fee in the bitcoin protocol and it is the lowest competitive fee. If anyone on the network thinks they can do it for less, then they can. I frequently send money overseas and I assure you, there is no cheaper option.

The bitcoin protocol (and alt-coin clone networks) is the fastest way to send money. For comparison, a credit card takes between two days an a month to settle. As a user you may not know that. It is well known to business owners.

Now if you are trying to mix bitcoin with fiat currency, then yes, it is going to take forever. But it has nothing to do with bitcoin. The slowdown is in meeting legal requirements for the use of dollars or euros. Those currencies have many, many, laws.

[gentlemand]

I'm really trying to understand, nothing more.

Litecoin seems a lot faster with much lower fees. Shouldn't it then be more popular than Bitcoin? What are the big advantages of Bitcoin despite these 2 big drawbacks?

Litecoin is designed to be faster. It processes transactions every 2.5 minutes. It has more capacity but more importantly in terms of fees its chain has zero pressure on it. Not enough people are using it.

Bitcoin is used by more people and it has less room. Why do more people use and want it? Because it has earned the most trust and that's why it's the most valuable and in demand coin of the lot. It's the oldest, most battered, most tested and most decentralised.  

A cryptocurrency without trust is worthless. That's the only basis for the value of any of them. None of them are anything more than a few bits of code flying around the internet. What gives any of them value is the belief enough people have that they're worth something. That can't be programmed, faked, bought or summoned from thin air. It takes years and years of grind.

If it was purely down to speed and fees then almost every other coin is faster and less costly to transact. That doesn't mean they have any future.

If I produced a coin today that could do instant and free transactions it would be roundly ignored. No one would want it because it hasn't earned their trust.

Bitcoin's prime reason for existence is to be free from the meddling of middlemen. It's open to all and verifiable to all. That means millions of people and machines are working to keep it that way. That inevitably has a cost in terms of wieldiness compared to one company operating off its own database permitting you to access it on their terms.

[1Referee]

The fees aren't high, the recommended fee right now is below $1 If you don't use the recommended bitcoin wallets you could end up paying more because some wallets don't have the option to customize the fee.

If waiting for a few minutes is slow you could use the lightning network.Once you make more transactions you'll get used to the increased waiting times.

Newbies are very simple. They look at a coin such as Dogecoin (or any other shitcoin for that matter) and wonder why it's much cheaper than Bitcoin. Based on that they have a point, it's much more expensive fee-wise, but they lack the understanding of why there is such a massive difference in fees.

If they don't understand the very basics of on-chain transactions, they will not understand what Lightning is and how to tap into it. Even if they install a custodian wallet, they will complain about 1001 different things that will make their Lightning experience suck. First they have to understand the workings of on-chain transactions, then off-chain. 

[drumamat]

and it is very slow.

Yes, but when you bought bitcoin for $ 3,000 and sold it for $ 13,000, you can wait.Because of this fact, bitcoin cannot be compared to other cryptocurrencies.None of them rose as much as bitcoin.

[Yamifoud]

You are probably missing a lot.
 
Fees are something gives disappointment for us but if we generate profits of $1000 in a day? I don't think if you would mind the fees.
Some exchanges have options, we can adjust fees but it varies also of how much we would like to move or how long it arrives into our wallet.
 

[TimeTeller]

The fees aren't high, the recommended fee right now is below $1 If you don't use the recommended bitcoin wallets you could end up paying more because some wallets don't have the option to customize the fee.

If waiting for a few minutes is slow you could use the lightning network.Once you make more transactions you'll get used to the increased waiting times.

He needs to be oriented with other options when dealing with bitcoin.
Also, if he compares it with traditional payment system like WU, can he still say that the fee is high and tx is slow?
I guess he will change his mind if he will come to know other options such as using your own bitcoin wallet to transfer funds or utilizing the LN.
He has a lot of things to learn when it comes to crypto, so he should read the beginners section and other sections as suggested by one user here.

[ericycle]

and it is very slow.

Yes, but when you bought bitcoin for $ 3,000 and sold it for $ 13,000, you can wait.Because of this fact, bitcoin cannot be compared to other cryptocurrencies.None of them rose as much as bitcoin.

So you're saying that the value in Bitcoin is all the hype and the speculation is attracted? That's its value? And the hope that hype and speculation will continue? And usability doesn't really matter, as there isn't as much hype about other coins?

[sunsilk]

The fees are very high

How can be the fees to be very high if you can send $0.05 for the next 6 blocks? I thought that I won't see anyone complaining about the fees anymore but here you go. How much you paid for your transaction?

and it is very slow. This makes it very impractical for a lot of uses. What am I missing?

Relative to the price, I know you're trying to understand it but that's what we call volatility. Bitcoin has that character so you have to understand it more that it doesn't have an actual and certain price where it can stay forever.

[ericycle]

The fees aren't high, the recommended fee right now is below $1 If you don't use the recommended bitcoin wallets you could end up paying more because some wallets don't have the option to customize the fee.

If waiting for a few minutes is slow you could use the lightning network.Once you make more transactions you'll get used to the increased waiting times.

He needs to be oriented with other options when dealing with bitcoin.
Also, if he compares it with traditional payment system like WU, can he still say that the fee is high and tx is slow?
I guess he will change his mind if he will come to know other options such as using your own bitcoin wallet to transfer funds or utilizing the LN.
He has a lot of things to learn when it comes to crypto, so he should read the beginners section and other sections as suggested by one user here.

I've actually read quite a lot and familiar with a lot of theory, but at this point, I'm failing to see why Bitcoin should be more attractive both now and in the long run, being slower, with more expensive fees, and slow transaction rate, it can't really scale very well at this point.

What are the advantages of Bitcoin, except for hype/name recognition and current penetration?