Have you stopped using bitcoin for small transactions completely ?

[348Judah]

Small transactions on bitcoin does not make any sense now at all. Like to make a $20 amount transaction, one has to pay about same amount, $20 in fees. This does not make any sense. Have you stopped using bitcoin for small transactions completely because of this reason ?

With the current transaction fee we are having, one can still manage to have between $3 to $7 as minimum transaction fee while you can as well discover some periods whereby you make use of amounts lower to these, it all depends on how the mempool state is as at that time, but anything below $10 as cost for transaction fee should be something we can be able to afford and pay, other networks charges more than that in this same cryptocurrency.

[oktana]

I have a website : https://bitcoinfees.net/ that shows me how much transaction fee you should spend depending on how long you’re willing to wait. If the transaction fee is up to 25% - 50% of what you’re transacting then it’s best for you to perform the transaction later of probably settle with an elongated but cheaper transaction fee. There’s no other option after all.

[GreatArkansas]

Small transactions on bitcoin does not make any sense now at all. Like to make a $20 amount transaction, one has to pay about same amount, $20 in fees. This does not make any sense. Have you stopped using bitcoin for small transactions completely because of this reason ?

With the current transaction fee we are having, one can still manage to have between $3 to $7 as minimum transaction fee while you can as well discover some periods whereby you make use of amounts lower to these, it all depends on how the mempool state is as at that time, but anything below $10 as cost for transaction fee should be something we can be able to afford and pay, other networks charges more than that in this same cryptocurrency.

This is really the downside of Bitcoin, let's accept it. Especially during these times, when the market is volatile, high transaction fees in Bitcoin are normal.
But sometimes it is cheap, sometimes not. But it does not make sense to wait before the transaction fee gets cheap especially if you are really in a rush to do the transaction.

Well, using lightning network and other altcoins will solve this problem, for me, this is the best solution right now we have.

[famososMuertos]

There is a tendency to think in small transactions, but the reality is that it should be measured percentageally, a fee of $1 is low but not, if you send $10, then $100 can be a high fee, but it is not, if you send $1000, and $1000 dollars may be small transactions for the size of your wallet if measured in hundreds of thousands or millions.

Few days ago without priority it was around 6 sat/Vb, and the average was 18sat/vB, today it is around 15 s/vB without priority and the average is 50v/sB, it doesn't matter, you simply give it the 3%, 5% ratio, as percentages appropriate to your "send", then if it is not met if necessary, emergency, the limit is 10%, but the best option is to use other means of payment, as simple as that....

[adaseb]

Yes I have stopped making $20 transaction on the bitcoin network since 2017. I’ve moved on to ETH for micro transactions but that also got conjested. Then I moved on to altcoins like Litecoin.

However for the last few years I’ve mostly used L2 networks like ARB. And recently started to use Solana. Fees are super cheap and it’s super fast. There is also Tron network which is pretty quick and cheap to interact with.

[mindrust]

Yep. Btc isn’t good for buying a cup of coffee or making small donations anymore. Litecoin is the king of small purchases now. If you check binance, the withdrawal fee for litecoin is only 0.0001 ltc, that’s $0.008. You could send $1 worth of ltc and only pay below a cent to make that transaction.

I think transacting with btc only makes sense when you are sending big amounts. Like $1000 or more. For everything else, ltc is ready for duty.

[FinneysTrueVision]

In order to pay for certain subscriptions, I occasionally have to top up different accounts with small amounts like $3 or $7. In order to make these payments I convert some of my BTC into Liquid BTC. Wallets like Marina and Aqua Wallet allow you to pay Lightning invoices by swapping your L-BTC, you don’t have to manage your own channels. If Lightning isn’t a supported payment method, then I swap L-BTC through an instant exchange for whatever low fee altcoin is accepted.

I understand that Liquid BTC is not “real” BTC, but it is still backed by real Bitcoin which I’ve pegged into the network. To me this is a better alternative than holding random shitcoins which can’t be easily and with minimal trust be converted back to Bitcoin.

[Z_MBFM]

Small transactions on bitcoin does not make any sense now at all. Like to make a $20 amount transaction, one has to pay about same amount, $20 in fees. This does not make any sense. Have you stopped using bitcoin for small transactions completely because of this reason ?

I would definitely avoid using Bitcoin for small transactions to avoid high transaction fees. we will not worry about btc's transaction fees as minimum $500 transaction is required.  But sometimes some situations force us to do small amount bitcoin transactions. For example, if we receive signature campaign money in our personal wallet and need to sell it in an emergency, then we are obliged to make a bitcoin transaction for that amount. And in some cases we have to pay in Bitcoin and we have no way to use other coins.  So we cannot avoid small transactions at all.

[Z-tight]

This does not make any sense. Have you stopped using bitcoin for small transactions completely because of this reason ?

I am sure a lot of people have stopped using BTC for small tx's because of the spike in tx fees, BTC is no longer suitable for small tx's and that is the truth. However, you can consolidate your small inputs whenever fees are very low and use coin control to reduce the number of inputs that will be used in a tx, this will help reduce the fees you spend on a tx if you decide to use BTC to pay for something cheap later on.

[kotajikikox]

Small transactions on bitcoin does not make any sense now at all. Like to make a $20 amount transaction, one has to pay about same amount, $20 in fees. This does not make any sense. Have you stopped using bitcoin for small transactions completely because of this reason ?

There is Lightning network to use in small transactions mate so I guess there is no need in stopping to use bitcoin for now , though I must admit that some of my friends and client advises me to transact with them using altcoins so yeah i have to comply with them of course.

[Apocollapse]

Yep, why I need to force myself to spend more when there's a better way? looks like a no brainer.

The only way I will send Bitcoin for small transactions even though the fees is rising very high if the sites only accept Bitcoin payment, just like this forum where buy a copper membership must in Bitcoin.

There is also Tron network which is pretty quick and cheap to interact with.

Tron is cheap, but TRC-20 tokens aren't cheap. I need to pay around $2 for every transaction I made, you could pay less if you own a good amount Tron and you stake it.

[naira]

You can send transactions for a very low fee if time is not an issue. Just reserach how to set a specific sat amount for the fee.
Still this is not how it should be, but at this point I think Bitcoin has forever lost its ability to be usable for small transactions.

The efficiency of a transaction is fast, safe and the fees charged are low. We are currently losing a little in Bitcoin transaction costs, to use sending I usually set a ratio of 97:3 from 100%, as for paying with small transactions I use the alt option because anyone must be rational with the ratio issued. Having your own calculations is already a requirement that must be taken into account, I am sure that for matters like this, before carrying out a transaction, you will definitely first check the gas fee estimate at that time.

[Sebas.tian]

Small transactions on bitcoin does not make any sense now at all. Like to make a $20 amount transaction, one has to pay about same amount, $20 in fees. This does not make any sense. Have you stopped using bitcoin for small transactions completely because of this reason ?

It has be long I Carry out small transactions on Bitcoin, because is a waste of Bitcoin based on the high fees involved but if you can wait to allow the Bitcoin to accumulate in your wallet before you can carry out your transaction, you will like the transaction and you will like to transact your Bitcoin in huge amount in the market. I think, there are some wallet you can download to store your Bitcoin and the gas fees will not be high both in small Bitcoin transactions and big transactions and your transaction will be successful without any delay. You can stop the small transactions if you can have other means to solve the challenges that is making you to transact Small Bitcoin, so that you will exercise patience till your Bitcoin increase higher in your wallet before you can transact, I believe it will help you to stop all those high fee in your small Bitcoin transactions.

[bitzizzix]

Small transactions on bitcoin does not make any sense now at all. Like to make a $20 amount transaction, one has to pay about same amount, $20 in fees. This does not make any sense. Have you stopped using bitcoin for small transactions completely because of this reason ?

I haven't made a transaction using Bitcoin for a long time and the reason is because there are no shops or sellers that provide transactions using Bitcoin or other crypto in my area. So I only use fiat to do any transactions.
And it's only when buying online or individually that happens unexpectedly with fellow crypto users that I sometimes do, and even then not making transactions in small amounts. However, sometimes I use other alternative cryptocurrencies if they exist as a transaction option because the costs are very cheap and even free, such as TRX, LTC, XRP and so on are examples of alternative cryptocurrencies that provide much cheaper speed and transaction costs.

[joeperry]

Yes, the Bitcoin is not meant for small transactions now as the transaction fee could be higher than the value you are going to send. (I actually experience that) though you can use lighting network and I think some of the known wallets do already support it such as Electrum, but I am not sure if you need to create new wallet to use it as in my existing wallet, I can't managed to make it work.

You can also use other coins or network alternatives for small transactions, for instance just store around $100 worth of Tron or USDT (TRC-20) or other coins and just use it for micro transactions.

[Nrcewker]

Small transactions on bitcoin does not make any sense now at all. Like to make a $20 amount transaction, one has to pay about same amount, $20 in fees. This does not make any sense. Have you stopped using bitcoin for small transactions completely because of this reason ?

It doesn’t happen all the time. You were saying the case, when the mempool is crowded. It’s obvious that at that time, the network fees will also high. If I need to do the transaction of 20$, then I will wait till the fees become stable. Else if it needs to be done urgently, then I just convert the coin into any cheap alt and do the transaction. To be honest, I never like to give Bitcoins for something else, but still if the situation is worse, then I will use altcoins instead.

[0t3p0t]

Small transactions on bitcoin does not make any sense now at all. Like to make a $20 amount transaction, one has to pay about same amount, $20 in fees. This does not make any sense. Have you stopped using bitcoin for small transactions completely because of this reason ?

Well for me yeah, as we all know fee is quite high and local e-walllets also has high spreads so it's not worth it anymore for a smaller transactions but 7 years ago I used Bitcoin to buy mobile load for my data connection and it's  like $10-$20 + rebates. I personally don't have time to wait for the fee to dip low so it's not my option anymore.

[Dailyscript]

Have you stopped using bitcoin for small transactions completely because of this reason ?

No i haven't stopped using bitcoin for small transactions. The reason is i the highest i spend on transaction fees is $2.3 which is affordable to me. Anything exceeding that range i find another means to make the payment. Although sometimes the fees are way less and sometimes congestions happen in the blockchain where the fees would be up to the $20 you mentioned. In such cases i would not use bitcoin for transactions anymore until the the fees comes down.

However congestion doesn't stay for long and i dont buy things using bitcoin everyday. Most times only when i want to gamble or pay for something online that is when i make use of Bitcoin. Either am not really affected with high fees.

[Ayers]

snip
This isn't the first time we've experienced mempool congestion, and it won't be the last, so fees may take a while to return to normal. Some might also consider using the Lightning Network for small transactions during these times, but not everyone is familiar with it.

As you said, this is not the first time we have encountered mempool blockage and up to now we still do not have any effective solution for this problem, so it can be said that this is a very serious problem. We cannot wait 2 to 3 months for things to get back to normal and do transactions and it happens again after some time. Waiting is not the solution in this case and it is a vicious cycle with no way out. Think what will happen next if the demand for bitcoin increases after the halving? The transaction fee will be double the current price and do you want to wait any longer? That's why I never expected or advocated for bitcoin to become a popular currency or payment method.

[nutildah]

These days, or right now specifically, I'm not sending anything if the fees are more than 10% of the amount being sent. So yes Bitcoin is rendered impractical as a currency for small-scale pricing. That may change yet again, though. Really miss the days of 7 cents. If we could get down to about a dollar for next-block inclusion, that would be good enough for me.

Instead I find myself using Dogecoin & Litecoin more frequently -- fees are almost nil so sometimes it makes sense to do a conversion, especially if an exchange is gonna charge you an arm and a leg for withdrawing BTC.