Will transaction fees affect Bitcoin in the future?

[Mia Chloe]

A couple of times the mempool has been congested resulting in high transaction fees which is mostly not too healthy for the network as most users who do not have that much to spare for fees tend to cease transactions till the fee rate subsides.Also owing to the fact that Bitcoin has become more adopted over time, users have also increased too therefore logically, as the Bitcoin adoption rate increases, so does the price of Bitcoin however it has also partially led to increase in Bitcoin fees over time.Here is a chart which shows Bitcoin Avg. Transaction Fee.Relatively
fees have increased over Time and even exponentially during periods of congestion of the network.Yes topics concerning fees have been raised over time however aside from the implementation of the layer 2 what other possible ways would help keep Bitcoin transaction fees as low as possible.
Here also is a chart from  Blockchain.com that shows
Fees Per Transaction.
What is your opinion about this?

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[Dunamisx]

A couple of times the mempool has been congested resulting in high transaction fees which is mostly not too healthy for the network as most users who do not have that much to spare for fees tend to cease transactions till the fee rate subsides.

This is not the challenge here, bitcoin high transaction fee is not happen for the very first time, but it's either if the ordinals inclusion on the bitcoin network taking hold of the free blockspace will never be what the bitcoin community will ever regret having if it turns out to be a bug on every bitcoin nodes or threats on attacking the network.

aside from the implementation of the layer 2 what other possible ways would help keep Bitcoin transaction fees as low as possible.

Maybe more research are still ongoing about that, but before then, make use of the mempool to know when the transaction fee are lower and the blockchain isn't congested, use a mining pool to accelerate your transaction.

[Zaguru12]

aside from the implementation of the layer 2 what other possible ways would help keep Bitcoin transaction fees as low as possible.

If I have my way it will be to find a way to avoid this shit coins like ORDI and it’s likes been built on bitcoin blockchain and make it bitcoin only blockchain, at least that would save up some space for more transactions, but that isn’t possible.

There are some people that actually are suggesting a fork to increase the block size which I don’t like because that will definitely affect the decentralization of bitcoin.

For now my suggestion is every user should implement personal manual management like consolidating their UTXOs when the fees gets low, use wallets that allow to customize fees, bump transactions and even have the coin control feature just incase you need that. And we should treat bitcoin as an alternative payment method, use it when it is cheap and convenient or use other means.

[Faisal2202]

Transaction fees according to meme pool, return to normal at the time of writing, I was not keeping an eye on the fee for the past 1 or 2 days, I just checked it now and it is normal so I don't think it will stay any longer. But as per your title, I will say yeah, high transaction fees will affect the bitcoin in the future and the present. This has to be solved, but it will be solved when it is taken as a problem first because most of the developers are not even taking it as a problem because to them the fee is not high but it is high for middle or lower class adopters (those who have lesser BTC). <-- I just came up with this term hehe.

Well, I am not a developer nor a technical enthusiast that I can suggest something new but my general knowledge says to me that I could make transactions in Batches rather than making one by one as it will reduce the fee for our transactions. And besides this, can sidechains will work for us like a side chain other than the BTC main blockchain where our transactions will be processed rather than on the main blockchain, or what about drivechains (pegged to the main blockchain).  

[tranthidung]

A couple of times the mempool has been congested resulting in high transaction fees which is mostly not too healthy for the network as most users who do not have that much to spare for fees tend to cease transactions till the fee rate subsides.

The health of the network, I guess you implied about network hashrate. It is not related to transaction fee and I can tell you the opposite fact. If transaction fee is more expensive, the network will become stronger and more healthier.

Because network hash rate comes from miners and miner's income comes from two sources: Bitcoin block rewards (subsidy) and transaction fees from transactions confirmed by miners in each found block. They, miners, will not leave the network, will not shut their ASICs down when they are receiving more money from mining.

The health of network also depends on another factor. Decentralization of network hash rate from miner ownership to its geolocation distribution.

[Mia Chloe]

aside from the implementation of the layer 2 what other possible ways would help keep Bitcoin transaction fees as low as possible.

If I have my way it will be to find a way to avoid this shit coins like ORDI and it’s likes been built on bitcoin blockchain and make it bitcoin only blockchain, at least that would save up some space for more transactions, but that isn’t possible.

There are some people that actually are suggesting a fork to increase the block size which I don’t like because that will definitely affect the decentralization of bitcoin.

For now my suggestion is every user should implement personal manual management like consolidating their UTXOs when the fees gets low, use wallets that allow to customize fees, bump transactions and even have the coin control feature just incase you need that. And we should treat bitcoin as an alternative payment method, use it when it is cheap and convenient or use other means.

I agree with you Zaguru12.but sometimes during periods when the congestion of the mempool is high even with the use of layer 2 lightning network, and proper timing the fees sometimes still remain quite higher than normal.
From my own perspective I think the transaction fee future of Bitcoin can't be accurately defined because ordinals, nodes and forks have a large role to play in the network.

But as per your title, I will say yeah, high transaction fees will affect the bitcoin in the future and the present. This has to be solved, but it will be solved when it is taken as a problem first because most of the developers are not even taking it as a problem because to them the fee is not high but it is high for middle or lower class adopters (those who have lesser BTC). <-- I just came up with this term hehe.

I like the term middle and lower class you used this is because they are the ones who high fees affect the most . although no one even the high class is comfortable paying higher fees than normal.

Well, I am not a developer nor a technical enthusiast that I can suggest something new but my general knowledge says to me that I could make transactions in Batches rather than making one by one as it will reduce the fee for our transactions. And besides this, can sidechains will work for us like a side chain other than the BTC main blockchain where our transactions will be processed rather than on the main blockchain, or what about drivechains (pegged to the main blockchain).

As for this it won't be feasible in all cases because certain transactions require that all funds be sent at once.

[adaseb]

Many people like me adjusted during the 2017 cycle pretty much when we had crazy fees. I just don't do any micro transactions anymore. I moved onto ETH but then the same thing happened on ETH and then I just started to use L2.

When I make a large purpose than paying a $2 fee on Bitcoin blockchain is not that bad. The issue is when you make daily transactions like that which can add up quick. Basically for daily transactions you need to use some form of L2. Either lightning network or some L2 chains like Polygon/Arbitium. I think many will just need to adapt to this. You don't see anyone on the bitcoin chain doing transactions for less than $100 these days.

[Upgrade00]

but it will be solved when it is taken as a problem first because most of the developers are not even taking it as a problem because to them the fee is not high but it is high for middle or lower class adopters (those who have lesser BTC). <-- I just came up with this term hehe.

This is certainly not the case. There has been a number of improvement proposals geared towards making transaction cost cheaper, one of them is SegWit. There are also off chain solutions that has been implemented.

Well, I am not a developer nor a technical enthusiast that I can suggest something new but my general knowledge says to me that I could make transactions in Batches rather than making one by one as it will reduce the fee for our transactions.

I am not certain what you are talking about, but what is more important to the fees is the inputs in the transaction, and this cannot be fixed by simply sending transactions in batches.

For an example; If you want to send $1000 worth of Bitcoin and do that in batches of $200 but had received little amounts of Bitcoin to make up the $1000, it's possible that your $200 transaction can have 10 or more inputs which will shoot the cost up.

Consolidating your inputs during low fee periods is something that can help.

[kentrolla]

Atrocious transaction fees are never welcomed as I don't think anyone would like to pay transaction fee more than the actual amount which they want to transfer especially in case of micro transactions. What's more worrisome is the fact that there are people defending the inflated transaction fees justifying it stating it has happened in previous bull runs but my question is why should it be that way? Bitcoin was created for P2P and not just for huge business transactions, I definitely get bad impression when it comes to transaction fee.

[PrivacyG]

What is your opinion about this?

As long as there are people to pay the high Fees there will be high Fees.  This is pretty much it.

Even if I do wish the Fees were much smaller.  But there is not much we can do really about it.  Maybe some body comes up with a better idea later on that solves at least part of the problem.  But for now this is how Decentralization works.  If there were no more crazy people to pay dozens of Dollars in Fees they would be much lower.

It will not take too long before Fees go back to 1 Satoshi per vByte.  I learned to wait.

[jrrsparkles]

Well, the situation was much worse in the 2017 bull run compared to the current network congestion and the fee went up to $40-50 for one input and one output transaction but currently, it was about $2-3 most of the time which means the implementation of segwit really been effective and making the network better still we are yet to attain the perfect cause imagine spending $3 to buy a coffee isn't look perfect though.

I feel the adoption of LN will be the long-term solution to this so this can eliminate all the small TX from on-chain and only bigger TX may be used to transact on-chain.

[PrivacyG]

I feel the adoption of LN will be the long-term solution to this so this can eliminate all the small TX from on-chain and only bigger TX may be used to transact on-chain.

I really wonder if this is going to work.  I am very double sided on the Lightning Network idea.  One day I think it is going to be a solution but the next day I wonder if it actually is a real solution.

Because when Lightning Network becomes more popular people will start using Onchain Transactions more often.  To consolidate UTXOs.  To transfer Bitcoin cheap.  Out of the comfort of not having to learn what Lightning is.  So I wonder if with the popularization of Lightning Network there will be a surge in Onchain Transactions from people who used not to move their Bitcoin much before.

[Mia Chloe]

Well, the situation was much worse in the 2017 bull run compared to the current network congestion and the fee went up to $40-50 for one input and one output transaction but currently, it was about $2-3 most of the time which means the implementation of segwit really been effective and making the network better still we are yet to attain the perfect cause imagine spending $3 to buy a coffee isn't look perfect though.

I feel the adoption of LN will be the long-term solution to this so this can eliminate all the small TX from on-chain and only bigger TX may be used to transact on-chain.

This is one main point .if the fees continue to increase over time it would reduce Bitcoin adoption to an extent because regular minor transactions will become uneconomical due to high fees.take for example buy some coffee of $5 and paying $2 for fees.the normal guy would just stick to using fiat instead of spending that much on fees

[Mate2237]

Yes the transaction fee will affect the population of bitcoin and most for Non-Custodial Wallets. and people might not use them like that again and instead they will prefer to use Centralized Exchanges all because in the Centralized Exchange, They will not pay much to send and if they are buying and selling in most exchanges it is free so they might abandoned wallets like Electrum, Bluewallet and others. Even now many people are not using them again.

And also yes the transaction will go down again because it has happened before and within one month interval the price reduced to the normal fee again so it will still reduced.

[philipma1957]

Many people like me adjusted during the 2017 cycle pretty much when we had crazy fees. I just don't do any micro transactions anymore. I moved onto ETH but then the same thing happened on ETH and then I just started to use L2.

When I make a large purpose than paying a $2 fee on Bitcoin blockchain is not that bad. The issue is when you make daily transactions like that which can add up quick. Basically for daily transactions you need to use some form of L2. Either lightning network or some L2 chains like Polygon/Arbitium. I think many will just need to adapt to this. You don't see anyone on the bitcoin chain doing transactions for less than $100 these days.

Use LTC and Doge for small numbers.

Use BTC for big numbers.

All problems will be greatly reduced.

[Abu-Naim]

fees have increased over Time and even exponentially during periods of congestion of the network.Yes topics concerning fees have been raised over time however aside from the implementation of the layer 2 what other possible ways would help keep Bitcoin transaction fees as low as possible.
Here also is a chart from  Blockchain.com that shows
Fees Per Transaction.
What is your opinion about this?

I know that comparing Bitcoin network and other networks is very wrong somehow because of the name Bitcoin and how decentralized it is.
ETH network gas fee was very cheap before it started becoming congested, and when the congestion occur, the fee went very high, then we have BSC chain as alternative with low fee, when it gets congested too, the fee become little bit high but still very affordable compared to ETH chain; but Bitcoin is unique and has very low fee not until ordinals and BRC 20 token saga last year, but when the network is feee, the fee will also go down.

Will the fee go down after several halving?

[btc78]

most of the time it’s us, the users, who control the price of transaction fees

the reason why it’s so high is not because this is what the miners have set but rather this is what other users are willing to pay just to get their transactions processed users don’t necessarily have to pay for a transaction fee as it was done before but because of the volume of users now it has been made almost impossible to get out of the queue unless you pay the transaction fee

this might never happen because of the difference in economic status of all users but if users on top decided to not pay transaction fees that high then it will reduce the transaction fees for everyone

[Captain Corporate]

The situation could not be far from the truth, I feel like its going to be basically an indicator that we are not going to see any drop at all. Remember, we are talking about increase in transaction fee, because we are seeing an increase in demand for bitcoin, and its being used a lot more right now as well. I believe that we can't really see the situation getting any worse as long as the transaction fees are higher, that just means that we are getting more and more demand. I hope that we can see it stay around here for a long time, yes it is a terrible feeling that we are seeing it be this high and we do not want to spend this much, but remember the fact that when it was lower it was also the bear period as well.

[Jating]

A couple of times the mempool has been congested resulting in high transaction fees which is mostly not too healthy for the network as most users who do not have that much to spare for fees tend to cease transactions till the fee rate subsides.Also owing to the fact that Bitcoin has become more adopted over time, users have also increased too therefore logically, as the Bitcoin adoption rate increases, so does the price of Bitcoin however it has also partially led to increase in Bitcoin fees over time.Here is a chart which shows Bitcoin Avg. Transaction Fee.Relatively
fees have increased over Time and even exponentially during periods of congestion of the network.Yes topics concerning fees have been raised over time however aside from the implementation of the layer 2 what other possible ways would help keep Bitcoin transaction fees as low as possible.
Here also is a chart from  Blockchain.com that shows
Fees Per Transaction.
What is your opinion about this?

Not sure if you have been in 2017, if I remember correctly, in the last quarter, specially November-December, the fees also increased that big. Although you can say that it's very different right now because we have the BRC-20 that congesting the mempool, and the incoming bull run, perhaps we won't see the fees going back to it' normal, or least 10 sat/vB bare minimum.

In any case, we will see how we will adapt, Bitcoin is resilient though, perhaps this is just temporary after the hype or BRC-20. Or will it continue and then we evolved, layer solution could be underway to try to fix this one.

[jrrsparkles]

I feel the adoption of LN will be the long-term solution to this so this can eliminate all the small TX from on-chain and only bigger TX may be used to transact on-chain.

I really wonder if this is going to work.  I am very double sided on the Lightning Network idea.  One day I think it is going to be a solution but the next day I wonder if it actually is a real solution.

Because when Lightning Network becomes more popular people will start using Onchain Transactions more often.  To consolidate UTXOs.  To transfer Bitcoin cheap.  Out of the comfort of not having to learn what Lightning is.  So I wonder if with the popularization of Lightning Network there will be a surge in Onchain Transactions from people who used not to move their Bitcoin much before.

People have to make on-chain transactions to create the channel but then they can keep sending them back and forth as long as the channel is open so it won't be a problem that will persist but I am too not sure that it is going to be the actual solution for low TX process per second but that is the beauty of decentralization, we get to decide what to do and how much to pay not the government or company.