high bitcoin fee

[TryNinja]

Thank you, this was indeed the problem, i didnt choose legacy (program was very helpful by not telling me what to choose and putting the wrong choice first, this is what pisses me off with software everytime). Anyway it would appear that it worked, i sent 0.001 bitcoin from bitstamp and now im waiting for it to appear. Then i will try sending it. If this works, this is going to save me a lot of money.

Segwit it's not the wrong choice. It is actually the best one, since fees are cheaper and it helps the Bitcoin network. BUT... many services are just lazy and take forever to implement support for it. Most big companies already support Segwit. The "Legacy" option is only the "right choice" if you need to use these "outdated" services, since this address type has full compatibility.

Sorry for sounding noobish but .. how safe is this ? I dont know why i feel safer when im using bitstamp/binance, now i just use a computer program

You mean the Electrum wallet? Very safe. Everyone that gets screwed using it are people that made mistakes and didn't follow the basic rules for being safe. A few tips:

1. ONLY download Electrum from ELECTRUM.ORG (triple check the URL!!!!).
2. Verify the signature of the file to make sure what you downloaded is legit. It's not hard and there is a tutorial here.
3. Any questions or worried if something is legit or not? Create a thread here and let people help you.
4. Do NOT download random stuff from the internet.
5. When copying an address to send coins to it, paste it and then TRIPLE CHECK it to see if it's the right address. Some malware in the internet change the addresses you copy to malicious ones.
6. Do NOT send your private-keys or backup seed to ANYONE.

[sentinelaeon]

Thank you for all the answers, you have been very nice and helpful, which i cannot say for many many forums. Thank you for that from my heart, kindness in todays world is not something you see often.
So now i sent a very small amount of couns from bitstamp to my electrum wallet. I think it was 0.001 bitcoin. After a while electrum saw that coins. And now i sent a tiny amount to one of those adresses that i often send. Right away it saw them but it has to verify them. In electrum i had a choice of number of blocks, basicaly fewer blocks meant fee will be smaller. Did i understand that correctly ? Anyway, now i need a way to calculate what the fee is when i transfer small amounts from electrum to those adresses. Bitstamp fee is not a problem anymore because i just send 30€ worth of coins at once, pay that 3€ fee but after that i can make transactions from electrum with small fee. Still, i would like to know what that fee is, just out of curiosity. And safety is not an issue since i work with such small amounts, i can afford to lose 30€ as long as the chance is very very small.

[sentinelaeon]

And i just checked and the bitcoins got through. Now i just need to write down the amount of coins and send and how many come out on the other side, to see what the fee is. Thank you again !

[TryNinja]

And i just checked and the bitcoins got through. Now i just need to write down the amount of coins and send and how many come out on the other side, to see what the fee is. Thank you again !

The fees suggested by Electrum are always changing since it's calculated based on the network usage. When the Bitcoin mempool is full (many transactions waiting to be confirmed) the fees rise. You can pay the amount you want, but how fast it will confirm depends on how much you pay in comparison to other transactions in the network.

It's a bit complicated in the beginning. But if you don't mind paying a little bit more in some cases, just choose what Electrum recommends you. Or you can see how much some websites recommend to you and try to decide according to them.

https://bitcoinfees.earn.com/
https://bitcoinfees.info/
https://coinb.in/#fee

[SFR10]

In electrum i had a choice of number of blocks, basicaly fewer blocks meant fee will be smaller. Did i understand that correctly ?

No, it's the opposite
- In order to get your transaction to be added to the first few blocks, you'll have to pay a higher fee.
- "TryNinja" already covered other parts but if you still have questions, you can refer to "official documentation of electrum".

[o_e_l_e_o]

First of all, in Electrum, go to Tools -> Preferences, and check the box titled "Edit fees manually". I'd also change the "Fee estimation" drop down to "ETA".

For a general ball-park figure, I use the https://coinb.in/#fees site suggested above. You can ignore all the complicated sliders and just look at the bottom number in the blue box, currently 5 Sat/Byte. That's usually a good bet if you aren't in too much of a hurry and want your transaction confirmed within an hour or two. You can just punch that number in to the "Fee" box on Electrum.

If you want to have a bit more control, then use the fee slider in Electrum to choose how many blocks you want to wait before confirmation. A block is 10 minutes on average, but in reality can sometimes be much quicker or much longer than this. If you really need the transaction confirmed quickly, move the slider all the way to the right. Electrum will aim to confirm it within the next block, but you'll pay a larger fee (but still way lower than what you are paying from the exchange). If you are in no hurry and can wait all day for the transaction to confirm, move the slider all the way to the left to save yourself as much money as possible.

[sentinelaeon]

Ok so without changing any settings i made a transaction. In electrum it said -0.00042216 and the adress i sent to received 0.00041520. So if i got this right, the fee was 0.00000696 bitcoin which is 0.046€ or like 0.060$ which is basicaly nothing. Now i set it to edit fees manualy but this fee is so low as it is, that i am very very pleased. Thank you very much to all for your help. This is gonna save me tons of money

[o_e_l_e_o]

That sounds much better, and is in the right ball park of what you should be expecting to pay for a standard 1-input-2-output transaction when the mempool isn't backed up.

If you are interested to find out exactly what you paid in fees, you can right click on your transaction in Electrum and click on "Details". It will tell you an exact fee near the top left of the new box that pops up. You can also right click on the transaction in Electrum and then click on "View on block explorer", and it will take you to a webpage which shows you all the details of your transaction on a block explorer webpage. Somewhere on that page (depending on which block explorer you are using) it will tell you the exact fee you paid, in either bitcoin or satoshi/sats.