Why are Bitcoin Transfer Fees so high? Is Privacy a joke?

[SuperComicsStore]

I remember when Bitcoin was gaining movement, one of the reasons given for an alternative like Bitcoin was Privacy and to avoid high fees and monopoly by Banks/Credit Card companies.

Yesterday I had an unusual experience.

My Wallet is with Bitpay and they charged me 38% and 56% fees on two different occasions for buying some rare comics in exchange for Bitcoins. They called it Miners fees. I was stunned as I had never paid a fees that high, ever!

Recently Paxful announced that it is making IDs compulsorily for everyone, which throws Privacy into the drain. Many Wallets now require you to send them verification to be able to deposit and withdraw. Although I did the verification, I am not very happy about the entire process, especially where the entire Crypto ship is heading towards. I know people misuse the n/w and stuff, but why do we need an alternative payment when we are going back to the same reasons which led to Crypto birth.

How do you maintain Privacy amidst all these rules and regulations?

What is happening?

[boyptc]

That's really an unusual fee calculated by bitpay. They have cut for that I guess that's why it has been like that. How much was the total for those percentage in dollars?

Before sending always check how much is the recommended fee through this website --> https://jochen-hoenicke.de/queue/#0,24h

And for paxful, they really are asking for that. I don't know how long they've started it but you can't enjoy their features if you won't follow the kyc.

About the strict compliance of KYC, FINCEN was said to require it for self-hosted wallets in the US.

--> https://www.coindesk.com/fincen-proposes-kyc-rules-for-crypto-wallets

--> https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/fincen-proposes-kyc-for-withdrawing-cryptocurrency-to-private-wallets

[SuperComicsStore]

Thanks for that Fincen link.

For the first transaction, it was $10 for which they charged 36.28%. Check this https://imgur.com/a/a8jeWZi

The second comic was for $18 for which they charged over 58%.

Called it Miner fees.

For $28 worth of products, I ended up paying $43.

@boyptc  Do you know of a Network (other than Paxful) where I can maintain Privacy and also be able to sell my digital goods for BTC? It's mostly Gift Cards collected from Review Sites. I am also looking for a private and secure marketplace to sell my Rare Comic collection.

Thanks.

[ILuckyGuyI]

It is natural to see that Bitcoin transfer fees are continuing to be higher these days. Because the more demand increases, the more Bitcoin price rises. As the price continues rising, the fees continue increasing too. There is direct proportion between the fees and the price.

[jrrsparkles]

@boyptc  Do you know of a Network (other than Paxful) where I can maintain Privacy and also be able to sell my digital goods for BTC? It's mostly Gift Cards collected from Review Sites. I am also looking for a private and secure marketplace to sell my Rare Comic collection.

Thanks.

Paxful is not a marketplace, it is just a p2p exchange and there are some alternatives to maintain your privacy for such kind of trades.

Localcryptos
Hodlhodl
Bisq

There is popular marketplace to sell/buy anything with cryptocurrency is called Openbzaar, so you can try this to sell your comic.

[SuperComicsStore]

This is so helpful. Didn't know about OpenBazaar.

I wish there were an upvote button in this forum!

Thanks a lot.

[OgNasty]

Bitpay isn't the most Bitcoin friendly service.  If you take custody of your BTC with a wallet that allows you to set the fee amount and consolidate your inputs during low transaction periods you will not have such an issue with high fees.

[SuperComicsStore]

Bitpay isn't the most Bitcoin friendly service.  If you take custody of your BTC with a wallet that allows you to set the fee amount and consolidate your inputs during low transaction periods you will not have such an issue with high fees.

I never realised this was possible. Which wallet service?

[boyptc]

@boyptc  Do you know of a Network (other than Paxful) where I can maintain Privacy and also be able to sell my digital goods for BTC? It's mostly Gift Cards collected from Review Sites. I am also looking for a private and secure marketplace to sell my Rare Comic collection.

Thanks.

One is through the forum's Digital goods section and its other childboards.

--> https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=93.0

Sorry but I don't know much other marketplace for that.

How about openbazaar?

--> https://openbazaar.org/

[Mauser]

56% fees sounds like a lot. How much was it in absolute terms? If you only send 1 or 2 dollars than the fees wouldn't be so high, but if you send 500 USD in bitcoins then it's definitely a lot. Bitcoins are still fairly anonymous but companies need to protect them self's 9f course against criminal activities.

[SuperComicsStore]

56% fees sounds like a lot. How much was it in absolute terms? If you only send 1 or 2 dollars than the fees wouldn't be so high, but if you send 500 USD in bitcoins then it's definitely a lot. Bitcoins are still fairly anonymous but companies need to protect them self's 9f course against criminal activities.

I have added a screenshot in my previous post

imgur.com/a/a8jeWZi

[bitterguy28]

I remember when Bitcoin was gaining movement, one of the reasons given for an alternative like Bitcoin was Privacy and to avoid high fees and monopoly by Banks/Credit Card companies.

Yesterday I had an unusual experience.

My Wallet is with Bitpay and they charged me 38% and 56% fees on two different occasions for buying some rare comics in exchange for Bitcoins. They called it Miners fees. I was stunned as I had never paid a fees that high, ever!

Then why buy using crypto , when times like this expet congestion and more higher fees, i'm sure those stuffs are also available in paper money. in some place.

Recently Paxful announced that it is making IDs compulsorily for everyone, which throws Privacy into the drain. Many Wallets now require you to send them verification to be able to deposit and withdraw. Although I did the verification, I am not very happy about the entire process, especially where the entire Crypto ship is heading towards. I know people misuse the n/w and stuff, but why do we need an alternative payment when we are going back to the same reasons which led to Crypto birth.

How do you maintain Privacy amidst all these rules and regulations?

What is happening?

We must understand now that it is government regulation to do KYC ,these companies only preventing the risk of being urged by Govs.

[TGD]

What is the interval of 2 transaction and also please specify the amount you sent on both transaction. Bitpay always used the normal miner fee at the time you send the transaction. The fee is normal in BTC currency but due to rapid increase to price of BTC. The fee seems so high if you view it in fiat.

In electrum, it charge around 117.2sat/byte for 2 blocks which is around 4$. Maybe you send transaction by the time BTC network was clogged by pending transaction.

[OgNasty]

Bitpay isn't the most Bitcoin friendly service.  If you take custody of your BTC with a wallet that allows you to set the fee amount and consolidate your inputs during low transaction periods you will not have such an issue with high fees.

I never realised this was possible. Which wallet service?

Wallet service?  I said, "If you take custody of your BTC" meaning that you would use a wallet on your own and not an online service.  It's as simple as sending yourself a transaction with all your small inputs when you can confirm it on a block with a low fee.

[SuperComicsStore]

What is the interval of 2 transaction and also please specify the amount you sent on both transaction. Bitpay always used the normal miner fee at the time you send the transaction. The fee is normal in BTC currency but due to rapid increase to price of BTC. The fee seems so high if you view it in fiat.

In electrum, it charge around 117.2sat/byte for 2 blocks which is around 4$. Maybe you send transaction by the time BTC network was clogged by pending transaction.

I tried it many times during the day and all the times it was showing high transaction fees. I was afraid I'd lose the items and hence went in for the sale.

Bitcoin is great. No doubt about that. But my apprehensions remain. All of this with Bitcoin is as confusing as the banking laws that very few of us understand.

[SFR10]

How do you maintain Privacy amidst all these rules and regulations?

By using a proper wallet ^{[with more flexibility]} like what "OgNasty" described ^{[e.g. TGD mentioned "Electrum", that's a good start]}...
^{Take note: Watch out for fake Electrum versions by verifying them.}

• With a wallet like Electrum, you could always choose your own fee ^{[more flexibility]} but there's always the risk ^{[TX with low fees]} of having your transactions to stay in an "unconfirmed" state but with the help of free accelerating services, you could speed them up a bit if it isn't that urgent.
  ^{- There are a lot of fake services that pretend to accelerate but only rebroadcast TXs. Having said that, there are also a few paid services out there but I'll be listing two free services...}
  
  • ViaBTC's transaction accelerator
  • Antpool's transaction accelerator ^{[registration needed]}

Do you know of a Network (other than Paxful) where I can maintain Privacy and also be able to sell my digital goods for BTC? It's mostly Gift Cards collected from Review Sites. I am also looking for a private and secure marketplace to sell my Rare Comic collection.

In addition to other suggestions, you might want to also try the following subreddit page: BitMarket

[Bitcoin_Arena]

Thanks for that Fincen link.

For the first transaction, it was $10 for which they charged 36.28%. Check this

The second comic was for $18 for which they charged over 58%.

Called it Miner fees.

For $28 worth of products, I ended up paying $43.

1. Because you don't know the best times or days when the Bitcoin transaction fees are at their lowest. You probably transacted during the peak hours or peak days. Always learn to transact when the Bitcoin fee rate for quicker confirmations is at its lowest.

Personally i have never spent more than $2 worth of bitcoin transaction fees even with the recent Bitcoin transaction fee spike.

2. You are probably using services that do not support segwit . Use of segwit addresses tends to reduce the transaction fees to some extent

[jrrsparkles]

This is so helpful. Didn't know about OpenBazaar.

I wish there were an upvote button in this forum!

Thanks a lot.

Haha, those words are more than enough!

Well, bitcointalk system is having merit system which is something like upvote but you need to earn merits first to spend it on someone's post so it is lot more valuable than free upvote.

To understand about bitcointalk's merit system : https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2818350.0

[SuperComicsStore]

This is so helpful. Didn't know about OpenBazaar.

I wish there were an upvote button in this forum!

Thanks a lot.

Haha, those words are more than enough!

Well, bitcointalk system is having merit system which is something like upvote but you need to earn merits first to spend it on someone's post so it is lot more valuable than free upvote.

To understand about bitcointalk's merit system : https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2818350.0

Good to know. No wonder you have it in 3 digits! Thanks.

[alexfagaras]

Bitify.com will work with way smaller fee. You can end up being paid in ltc, which has even smaller fees. localeth also might work as a wallet.

Try to use electrum as wallet, but backup your keys.

Good luck with your sales.