Are small BTC transactions essentially “Wasted”?

[ConnerDalfino]

If I receive a very small amount of BTC, like $1 worth, is that BTC essentially wasted? Because to my knowledge, to send that BTC I would need to include that transaction as an input, which incurs a transaction fee. One online calculator, I used estimated the cost of an input as $5, which would mean it is not even worth spending the $1 I received?

Seems like this may be a problem as small transactions overtime cause the number of spendable bitcoins to decrease?

[ranochigo]

Most people actually don't receive Bitcoins in denominations that small or rather it's just not feasible right now.

It would be good if you could delay spending those small inputs. Instead, you can wait for them to accumulate and spend them all at once so it'll have loads of inputs and only one output. Spending it with a low fee would net you a confirmation sooner or later. During the weekends, the fees usually comes down to about 10satoshis per byte which would be fairly reasonable. I don't think Bitcoin would be affected by such an issue, the fees that you mentioned disincentives people to create transactions with small output as fees will eat into a bulk of it. Smaller transactions would be fine for lightning network however.

[mk4]

We're pretty much in a bull market so the mempool is mostly always decently congested. When things calm down though, probably expect 1 sat/byte transaction fees to be viable again. Probably wait for that time to come.

On the other hand, though it's can be a slight privacy issue, you can continue accepting bitcoin on that wallet so at the very least wait til it accumulates to the $10-$50 range so sending it out is more worth it.

[Charles-Tim]

Lightning network usage should work perfectly for spending $1 worth of bitcoin, the transaction will be very fast and with very low amount of fee not worth more than $0.00005.

With mempool of 10 sat/vbyte on Sundays, with bitcoin at such high price of $56000, the fee will not yet be more than $0.4 (1 input and 1 output)

Note that wallets may not estimate the fee accurately at times, you can also check the fee on mempool, mempool.space is one of the recommended.

Onchain transactions are not for sending small amount of bitcoin, instead, it will be a waste of bitcoin on fee.

[Kakmakr]

This is an issue that are addressed with the introduction of the Lightning Network, because the fees are much lower when you use Lightning Network hubs. A while back, I used Electrum and I transferred some coins and I selected the highest fees, because I was in a hurry and I did not look at the fees. (Expected it to be between $10 to $20) ...but it turned out that the Mempool was very congested and I paid $1000 in miners fees. (Yea, $1000)  

Also, people time their transfers..based on the congestion.. (Way back when faucets paid 1000 sat per hour, people collected those in one wallet..but the miners fees would have absorbed most of the satoshi that was collected back then... so a few years after that the price increased and the Mempool became less congested and those people could transfer the Satoshi without taking a huge hit.

My advice... collect whatever you can and wait for the Mempool to be less congested, before you transfer those coins.  

[someone703]

like $1 worth

I will end it too  !! If it does happen then the concrete evidence goes, and my conclusion is wasteful and absurd. I have never received such types of things, only on the etherum network does the problem arise where the bonuses are too small to trade while the transaction fee is still a problem for many people.

But is it important that if it's yours, and they like to waste, let them go, just think so simply accumulate and wait for the waste to decrease, then sell, it's never wasted.

[DannyHamilton]

We're pretty much in a bull market so the mempool is mostly always decently congested. When things calm down though, probably expect 1 sat/byte transaction fees to be viable again. Probably wait for that time to come.

Of course at the end of this bull market it is possible that the bitcoin exchange rate might be above $100,000.  If this happens, then the minimum fee for the transaction to even be relayed across the network will be more than $1 regardless of how congested the mempool is.  So, $1 may actually be "wasted" if sent as an on-chain transaction.

On the other hand, though it's can be a slight privacy issue, you can continue accepting bitcoin on that wallet so at the very least wait til it accumulates to the $10-$50 range so sending it out is more worth it.

Nope.

Each input adds bytes to the transaction.  Having more inputs will not make it worth it to spend an input that is already not worth it to spend.

Seems like this may be a problem as small transactions overtime cause the number of spendable bitcoins to decrease?

It's only a problem if you think that every peer in the entire world should be required to permanently store your $1 transaction for all of time.  If you are willing to engage in off-chain transactions for small exchanges, and reserve block space for high-value transactions, then it isn't a problem at all.  There are a few off-chain alternatives available for small value transactions:

• Custodial services such as Coinbase.com
• Lightning Network
• Altcoins
• Local Currency (U.S. dollars, Euro, etc)

Additional off-chain options that we haven't even thought of yet may exist in the future as well.

[mk4]

Nope.

Each input adds bytes to the transaction.  Having more inputs will not make it worth it to spend an input that is already not worth it to spend.

Yep. My point though was that OP should just accumulate more on that address. Not that the transaction would be cheaper(due to the additional inputs like you said), but it might just be more 'worth it'.

e.g.

Sending $5 worth of bitcoin for a $1 fee (one tx)

vs

Sending accumulated $50 worth of bitcoin for a $1-2 fee (one tx)

Or am I missing something here? Feel free to enlighten me.

[dkbit98]

If I receive a very small amount of BTC, like $1 worth, is that BTC essentially wasted? Because to my knowledge, to send that BTC I would need to include that transaction as an input, which incurs a transaction fee. One online calculator, I used estimated the cost of an input as $5, which would mean it is not even worth spending the $1 I received?

Seems like this may be a problem as small transactions overtime cause the number of spendable bitcoins to decrease?

Nothing is wasted, but those calculators can sometimes be wrong and you should probably combine them with looking at mempool and wait for weekend when Bitcoin fees are usually lower.
Reduce number of inputs and outputs for your transactions and try to accumulate more satoshis before sending your coins, but bottom line is that most of us have to use some second layer solutions or altcoins for sending small payments and donations like this.
This are some of the best Bitcoin transaction size calculators you can use:

- Jameson Lopp Calculator
- Bitcoin Ops
- ByBitcoinWorldwide
- Coinb.in
- Bitcoindata.science

[DannyHamilton]

Sending $5 worth of bitcoin for a $1 fee (one tx)

vs

Sending accumulated $50 worth of bitcoin for a $1-2 fee (one tx)

Or am I missing something here? Feel free to enlighten me.

You are missing something.

Look at it this way.  Let's use a fee of $1.10 worth of bitcoins per input.

You receive $1 worth of bitcoins into an empty wallet.

You realize that you can't pay a fee of $1.10 worth of bitcoins to send your $1 worth of bitcoins in a transaction since your wallet doesn't even have $1.10 worth.

Later you receive another transaction to the same address (or a different address, it doesn't really matter as long as the addressees are in the same wallet) that is worth $49.00.

You now have 2 transaction outputs that you can spend, one worth $1 and the other worth $49.

You could create a transaction that ONLY spends the input that is worth $49, paying a fee of $1.10 worth of bitcoins so that your recipient can receive $47.90 worth of bitcoins.
OR
You could create a transaction that spends BOTH inputs (worth a total of $50), paying a free of $2.20 worth of bitcoins ($1.10 per input) so that your recipient can receive $47.80 worth of bitcoins.

Notice that it STILL isn't worth it to spend that $1 input, since spending it is going to add $1.10 to your transaction fees REDUCING the total amount that you can send.  If you just ignore the $1 input and DON'T EVER SPEND IT, you'll be able to actually make use of more of your bitcoins (an extra $0.10 worth in the above example).

Now, what you CAN do is wait until the network is less congested. However, if the amount of bitcoins received in a transaction is LESS than the typical fee when the network is not congested (the minimum fee for a transaction to be relayed), then those bitcoins become effectively useless unless the minimum fee for relay is reduced.

[livingfree]

It's a waste if you'll send it to someone but that's why there's the lightning network. I've done a few of them and it's really for microtransactions. If you have an option not to send that amount, then don't send it.

Save it and only send it if you've got a good amount to transfer to make the fee worth it.

[pawanjain]

If I receive a very small amount of BTC, like $1 worth, is that BTC essentially wasted? Because to my knowledge, to send that BTC I would need to include that transaction as an input, which incurs a transaction fee. One online calculator, I used estimated the cost of an input as $5, which would mean it is not even worth spending the $1 I received?

Seems like this may be a problem as small transactions overtime cause the number of spendable bitcoins to decrease?

You "may" consider it wasted if we look at it from that perspective. It depends on what's your perspective is.

Firstly, bitcoin wasn't meant for micro transactions. The Lightning Network can be used to do micro transactions.
Transferring $1 over the LN is not wasted since it would consume a low amount of fees.
Transferring $1 over the bitcoin network is meaningless since you will end up paying more in the fees itself.

Again, it depends on your perspective. If you want to stay pseudonymous and don't bother about the fees then transferring $1 is essentially not wasted.

[aysg76]

If I receive a very small amount of BTC, like $1 worth, is that BTC essentially wasted? Because to my knowledge, to send that BTC I would need to include that transaction as an input, which incurs a transaction fee. One online calculator, I used estimated the cost of an input as $5, which would mean it is not even worth spending the $1 I received?

Seems like this may be a problem as small transactions overtime cause the number of spendable bitcoins to decrease?

The transaction fees depends upon the size of transaction depicted in Sathoshi/bytes not on the amount of transaction.The miners will add those transaction which have higher fees associated with the transaction to increase their profits.If the network is congested and there are thousands of transactions unconfirmed in the memepool your transaction with low fees or below average fees transaction have less chances or say zero chances of being confirmed.So you should always pay the average fees which can be calculated with the help of online fees calculator available.The small transaction inputs should be combined with multiple inputs to make a bigger denomination which can than be send to other wallet with proper fees depending on the size of transaction.

[Mpamaegbu]

Going memory lane and taking a peep into my Bitcoin wallet history after reading this OP, I discovered that on October 1, 2017, $0.016btc was worth just $69 but today that's $920+. I have had someone send me $1 worth of Bitcoin earlier that same year as a reward for a minor task I did on the forum which was at that time 0.001btc. It was almost like I didn't earn anything. The reward was so small that I could've opted out but the thought of having my first ever Bitcoin drew me in. I anxiously wanted to see what it was like to own it. Today, that same 0.001 is almost $58. So, I would suggest you just leave the meagre amount lie there in your wallet. You never can tell what they will be worth 4 years from now.

Check these two pictures below and you will understand how crazily Bitcoin miners are becoming this day with extortion in fees irrespective of how much is getting sent out.

[Dutchyyy]

If I receive a very small amount of BTC, like $1 worth, is that BTC essentially wasted? Because to my knowledge, to send that BTC I would need to include that transaction as an input, which incurs a transaction fee. One online calculator, I used estimated the cost of an input as $5, which would mean it is not even worth spending the $1 I received?

Seems like this may be a problem as small transactions overtime cause the number of spendable bitcoins to decrease?

During periods of increased activity in the Bitcoin network, transaction fees tend to jump.

There is some speculation that high fees are representative of Bitcoin's post-Halving correction. Now that miners are earning 50% less BTC than before, they need a much higher price to strike a balance. At this current price level, miners are experiencing serious difficulties.

However, it should be noted that the largest cryptocurrency has not yet solved its problem with transaction fees. If it wants to be "digital gold", then the security it offers makes these fees insignificant. Currently, however, it is too expensive to use for day-to-day transactions.



Therefore, transactions of this type should be avoided, it is simply not worth doing.

[odolvlobo]

We're pretty much in a bull market so the mempool is mostly always decently congested. When things calm down though, probably expect 1 sat/byte transaction fees to be viable again. Probably wait for that time to come.

Of course at the end of this bull market it is possible that the bitcoin exchange rate might be above $100,000.  If this happens, then the minimum fee for the transaction to even be relayed across the network will be more than $1 regardless of how congested the mempool is.  So, $1 may actually be "wasted" if sent as an on-chain transaction.

Note that the 1 sat/vbyte minimum fee is not a validation rule. It is simply a bitcoin core propagation policy. There is no reason why the value can't be lowered.

[Trinx01]

It could be wasted if the transaction fees will cover almost all the $1, we are now in bull run so expect that the transaction fee will be high as well, so you better just hodl it and make it bigger so the next time you transfer money the transaction fees would not cover it all.

It's only wasted if the including that $1 (as 1 input) causes the transaction fee raised by $1 or more.

Well if that is the case then the transaction would not be completed, you cannot transfer money less the. the transaction fees.

[meanwords]

You'll have to pay more than $1 if you want the miners to send that amount. it's not wasted but it's definitely more expensive than sending larger amounts at a time than smaller amount. If you're just receiving anyway, you don't have to worry about the fee, it's the senders responsibility.

Seems like this may be a problem as small transactions overtime cause the number of spendable bitcoins to decrease?

Yes, but developers are trying to find solution to this, like the LN to potentially solve the problem.

[ven7net]

If I receive a very small amount of BTC, like $1 worth, is that BTC essentially wasted? Because to my knowledge, to send that BTC I would need to include that transaction as an input, which incurs a transaction fee. One online calculator, I used estimated the cost of an input as $5, which would mean it is not even worth spending the $1 I received?

Seems like this may be a problem as small transactions overtime cause the number of spendable bitcoins to decrease?

Earlier, I also asked a similar question, because I did not understand well the work of blockchain and cryptocurrencies. Of course, a commission is charged for transferring BTC, and now it is quite high. However, depending on what counts as small transactions? If you mean the transfer of BTC equal to $ 1, then you will waste your money and get nothing. To avoid this, you need to study the process and nuances in the work of blockchain and cryptocurrencies. This will help you understand that to transfer a certain amount of money, you need to know exactly what the commission is. It is worth noting that in different blockchains of different cryptocurrencies there are different prices for commissions. Based on this, if you plan to work with small amounts of money, then you better use not BTC, but for example TRX or LTC, DOGE.

[Botnake]

You have already received it, the one that sent that to you must have paid more than 1 usd in order to transact or maybe lower depending the  fees he choose. But if you choose to send that 1 usd from your wallet, just don't waste your time as it's almost not possible, the fees are high at the moment, just save your btc and who knows in the future it will grow and who knows in the future the fee will reduce.


But this still involves blockchain to my knowledge as the first transaction since LN is a third party.

Yes, but developers are trying to find solution to this, like the LN to potentially solve the problem.