Input from community on transfer fees

[Knight Hider]

For example, this week I only bought 10K Sats, which cost me around 70 USD$,

I hope you bought 100K Sats for that price, not 10K.

Show me where to buy 100K Sats for 70usd, and I will go there right now.

Most exchanges. 1 Bitcoin just under 70k Usd. 100K Sats is 0.001 Bitcoin, just under 70 Usd. 10K Sats is worth less than 7 Usd.

[_act_]

As far as UTXOs go, that's a paradigm I don't quite understand yet.
I thought I was doing a good thing by buying Sats whenever I got paid, but now some are telling me that is a bad thing.  This is worrisome.

There is no problem as you are accumulating it on exchanges. Some people are doing it and as the money reach higher amount, they withdraw to their noncustodial wallet.

If you are using a noncustodial wallet is what people are talking about. Let us say you send 0.001 BTC to your wallet, it will require you less amount of transaction fee when you want to transfer it to another person compared to if 0.0005 BTC is sent to your wallet two times. The more number of times you are sent bitcoin, the higher would be the fee if you want to spend all the UTXOs.

Do not be confused about what UTXOs are. If you are sent bitcoin just 1 time,  that is 1 UTXO. If you are sent bitcoin 2 times, you have 2 UTXOs. If you are sent bitcoin 3 times, you have 3 UTXOs and so on. But you can spend the UTXO one by one or combine some UTXOs to spend them. Go to Electrum testnet and be sending testnet coin to yourself to understand it better. As you are sending testnet coin to yourself, be checking coins which you can enable after you click on view.

And 'Consolidating Inputs' ...I have no idea what that is.
I guess I truly am a newbie when it comes to BTC  *facepalm*

You can read this LoyceV guide for it [May 2024] Fees are low, use this opportunity to Consolidate your small inputs

It is nothing hard to understand. As people are sending coin to your wallet, the UTXO (which is the number of time people sent you bitcoin) increases. When the fee on mempool (like https://mempool.space/) is very low, you can consolidate the inputs. Consolidating inputs means that you will send all the coins to another of your bitcoin address on the wallet. If you consolidate all the inputs for example by sending all the coins to only one address on your wallet, that means you have 1 UTXO because you have sent all the coins (that you received at different times) to only one address which makes it 1 UTXO.

If you are spending from 1 UTXO, the fee will be cheaper than spending from 2 or more UTXOs. You will not understand this totally if you do not see it practically on wallet like Electrum but I think you have understood the basic part of it.

[SeriouslyGiveaway]

Show me where to buy 100K Sats for 70usd, and I will go there right now.

Minimal order value on exchanges are likely $10 but you can check it with some websites. You need to check their minimal withdrawal and withdrawal fee too because at the end, after one or some purchases, you will have need to withdraw your bitcoin from exchanges to your own wallet.

You must know a minimum value of your bitcoins in the exchange account, and cost of withdrawal fee to avoid turning your money to dust after a withdrawal.

https://www.cryptowisser.com/exchanges/
https://exchangewar.info/
https://withdrawalfees.com/

[FatFork]

As far as UTXOs go, that's a paradigm I don't quite understand yet.
I thought I was doing a good thing by buying Sats whenever I got paid, but now some are telling me that is a bad thing.  This is worrisome. 

Not necessarily a bad thing. Buying satoshis in small amounts and accumulating multiple transactions of small amounts only affects your transaction fee in the future if it is your own non-custodial wallet. But since you bought satoshis on a centralized exchange, it has no effect. The amount of the withdrawal fee in your case depends solely on the exchange and their internal policy. You can't influence that, except you can decide to exchange BTC for some altcoin that has a lower withdrawal fee.

And 'Consolidating Inputs' ...I have no idea what that is.
I guess I truly am a newbie when it comes to BTC  *facepalm*

Again, this is related to holding coins in a non-custodial wallet. "Consolidating Inputs" is basically combining multiple small transactions (UTXOs) into a single larger transaction. This can help you save on transaction fees in the future. Bitcoins are like bills and coins in your physical wallet. Imagine you have a wallet full of one dollar bills. Consolidating inputs is like exchanging a hundred one dollar bills for one $100 bill. Just as a $100 bill takes up less space in your wallet, so a Bitcoin transaction with a smaller number of inputs takes up less space on the network, and for that reason the fee for the transaction is lower.

[MNster]

For example, this week I only bought 10K Sats, which cost me around 70 USD$,

I hope you bought 100K Sats for that price, not 10K.

Show me where to buy 100K Sats for 70usd, and I will go there right now.

Most exchanges. 1 Bitcoin just under 70k Usd. 100K Sats is 0.001 Bitcoin, just under 70 Usd. 10K Sats is worth less than 7 Usd.

I'm an idiot, you're right, too many zeros too count.
I had more than I thought....so there's that!
 

Show me where to buy 100K Sats for 70usd, and I will go there right now.

Minimal order value on exchanges are likely $10 but you can check it with some websites. You need to check their minimal withdrawal and withdrawal fee too because at the end, after one or some purchases, you will have need to withdraw your bitcoin from exchanges to your own wallet.

You must know a minimum value of your bitcoins in the exchange account, and cost of withdrawal fee to avoid turning your money to dust after a withdrawal.

https://www.cryptowisser.com/exchanges/
https://exchangewar.info/
https://withdrawalfees.com/

 Thank you...you are correct ✅

As far as UTXOs go, that's a paradigm I don't quite understand yet.
I thought I was doing a good thing by buying Sats whenever I got paid, but now some are telling me that is a bad thing.  This is worrisome.  

Not necessarily a bad thing. Buying satoshis in small amounts and accumulating multiple transactions of small amounts only affects your transaction fee in the future if it is your own non-custodial wallet. But since you bought satoshis on a centralized exchange, it has no effect. The amount of the withdrawal fee in your case depends solely on the exchange and their internal policy. You can't influence that, except you can decide to exchange BTC for some altcoin that has a lower withdrawal fee.

And 'Consolidating Inputs' ...I have no idea what that is.
I guess I truly am a newbie when it comes to BTC  *facepalm*

Again, this is related to holding coins in a non-custodial wallet. "Consolidating Inputs" is basically combining multiple small transactions (UTXOs) into a single larger transaction. This can help you save on transaction fees in the future. Bitcoins are like bills and coins in your physical wallet. Imagine you have a wallet full of one dollar bills. Consolidating inputs is like exchanging a hundred one dollar bills for one $100 bill. Just as a $100 bill takes up less space in your wallet, so a Bitcoin transaction with a smaller number of inputs takes up less space on the network, and for that reason the fee for the transaction is lower.

 These are excellent points and make a lot of sense to me.  Thinking I'm getting the gist now.
Thank you for this valuable, non-judgmental input.  Everyone has been really terrific in this thread.
🤝👍🤝👍🤝👍

[Faisal2202]

Anyhow, here's my dilema: I've been slowly accumulating Satoshis this year, and I also bought a cold storage wallet recently.  I tried today to move a small amount of BTC to the wallet as a "test" transaction to insure it went to the designated wallet, but the fee was a lot of money in my opinion.

Which cold wallet you have bought, if you could just share the name here, many users of that wallet would share their experience with you. Plus I get the feeling you are getting right now, when I was a newbie and I have to transfer funds from the wallet to exchange I was damn worried, like what if my funds never show up on my exchange, I fear that what if a single letter or word is missed from my wallet address, this and that, I was totally imagining things. But with time, I don't care anymore.

Although it's not a good thing, we should care about things, especially when we are making tx, so, if you doubt it, then don't as I hope you must have bought a good cold wallet. Speaking of fees, I don't think they are going to be down, I don't know how much you are seeing, and from which wallet you are sending them, but fees can be a little high and a little down if you find the best time, then proceed and send the funds. BTW if you already have tested the cold wallet with a small amount then why asking here, or you stop there after seeing the fee.

[MNster]

Anyhow, here's my dilema: I've been slowly accumulating Satoshis this year, and I also bought a cold storage wallet recently.  I tried today to move a small amount of BTC to the wallet as a "test" transaction to insure it went to the designated wallet, but the fee was a lot of money in my opinion.

Which cold wallet you have bought, if you could just share the name here, many users of that wallet would share their experience with you. Plus I get the feeling you are getting right now, when I was a newbie and I have to transfer funds from the wallet to exchange I was damn worried, like what if my funds never show up on my exchange, I fear that what if a single letter or word is missed from my wallet address, this and that, I was totally imagining things. But with time, I don't care anymore.

Although it's not a good thing, we should care about things, especially when we are making tx, so, if you doubt it, then don't as I hope you must have bought a good cold wallet. Speaking of fees, I don't think they are going to be down, I don't know how much you are seeing, and from which wallet you are sending them, but fees can be a little high and a little down if you find the best time, then proceed and send the funds. BTW if you already have tested the cold wallet with a small amount then why asking here, or you stop there after seeing the fee.

I stopped the test transaction. 
Even though I can afford the fee, I'm going to wait until I have a bigger pile of Sats.

[_act_]

I stopped the test transaction. 
Even though I can afford the fee, I'm going to wait until I have a bigger pile of Sats.

This is how the exchanges are discouraging people to withdraw on their site. Bitcoin transaction fee right now is less than $1.15 but the exchanges will charge too much. Hold the coin on an exchange is what you can do right now, but you can also make use of lightning wallet for the coins until it got to high amount like $200 to $500 and move it back to the exchange and send it to your cold wallet.