Default tx fee should be changed from 100 to 10 bits!

[Kazimir]

Since Bitcoin Core 0.9, the default transaction fee ('relayfee' in bitcoin.conf) was changed from 0.0001 (or 0.1 milliBTC or 100 bits) to 0.00001 BTC (or 0.01 milliBTC or 10 bits) per kilobyte.

Any chance this can be applied in Bitcoin Wallet for Android too?

One of the advantages of Bitcoin used to be 'almost free' transactions. But with todays currency rates, 0.0001 BTC is 4~5 euro cents, which is (even though it's obviously a small amount of money) still a lot more than consumers pay on regular bank wire transfers. Also, for micropayments (typically less than one euro) or small donations, a 4~5 cent fee is a pretty high percentage.

So, fixing the Android Wallet to use the official Bitcoin Core tx fee would help a lot in convincing people to give Bitcoin a try and put it to use in actual economic traffic!

[Andreas Schildbach]

We are monitoring transaction fees closely. At the moment it looks like even though lots of nodes relay transactions with a 0.01 mBTC fee per kB, miners don't care. They still require 0.1 mBTC per kB. As a result, transactions will get stuck.

If you want to experiment with fees, feel free to build your own binary from the source.

[Kazimir]

At the moment it looks like even though lots of nodes relay transactions with a 0.01 mBTC fee per kB, miners don't care. They still require 0.1 mBTC per kB.

How do you verify this, or where does this conclusion come from? I typically send all my transactions with a 10 bit fee (at least when paying from a wallet that allows custom fees, such as MultiBit or blockchain.info/wallet) and I never ever experienced any problems.

If you want to experiment with fees, feel free to build your own binary from the source.

I'm pretty unexperienced with Android development, but I'll look into it, thanks.

[medUSA]

At the moment it looks like even though lots of nodes relay transactions with a 0.01 mBTC fee per kB, miners don't care. They still require 0.1 mBTC per kB.

How do you verify this, or where does this conclusion come from? I typically send all my transactions with a 10 bit fee (at least when paying from a wallet that allows custom fees, such as MultiBit or blockchain.info/wallet) and I never ever experienced any problems.

I have tried sending a 900 byte transaction with 0.00001 fee (which would normally require 0.0001 fee) and it took over 40 hours to confirm. Is this what you mean by "never ever experienced any problems"? How long did yours take?

[Kazimir]

I have tried sending a 900 byte transaction with 0.00001 fee (which would normally require 0.0001 fee) and it took over 40 hours to confirm. Is this what you mean by "never ever experienced any problems"? How long did yours take?

Seriously? I'm not sure how large 900 bytes is compared to a regular tx, I always send simple txs from one address to another, using 0.00001 BTC fee. It typically takes 0 or 1 block to confirm (sometimes 2 or 3, rarely 4, never longer).

[medUSA]

Seriously? I'm not sure how large 900 bytes is compared to a regular tx, I always send simple txs from one address to another, using 0.00001 BTC fee. It typically takes 0 or 1 block to confirm (sometimes 2 or 3, rarely 4, never longer).

Well, a 1 input and 2 outputs (recipient and change address) transaction is about 250 bytes. A transaction with 4 inputs and 1 output is about 900 bytes. I use low maturity coins (have not been idle with 200+ confirmations) and tried sending a 4 to 1 transaction to test the acceptance of 0.00001 fee. I used low maturity coins because I do not want the maturity of coins (priority score) to influence the confirmation time.  It took 40 hours to confirm.

I believe your transaction sent with 0.00001 fee was confirmed quickly because of the maturity (high priority) rather than widespread acceptance of a 0.00001 fee. You probably could have sent it without a fee and it would confirm just as quickly.

[Mike Hearn]

A better fix would be to teach bitcoinj about priority and start to use fee/prio estimation so it knows when it doesn't have to attach any fee at all. Then some transactions would go back to being free again.

[galbros]

Would it be hard to give the user an option between 10K and 1K satoshi?  Sometimes I am fairly indifferent for how long it takes a transaction to confirm and others I need to go ASAP.

Thanks for all the work on the Android BTC wallet!