<p>Unfortunately the fees are growing these days and now we can't even buy a cup of coffee because the fees will be half the price of a coffee itself. The more people using bitcoin the higher the fees. </p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-06-14T08:25:45.837Z
2017-06-14T08:25:45.837Z
Jacob Greener
<p>It's misleading to look at transaction fees as a percentage.  Bitcoin transaction fees are based on the size of the transaction <strong>in bytes</strong>, regardless of the value being transacted.</p>

<p>According to the site you linked,</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>The fastest and cheapest transaction fee is currently 0.0000042 BTC/byte, shown in green at the top.
  For the median transaction size of 226 bytes, this results in a fee of 0.0009492 BTC.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>If you are trying to send BTC 0.005, then yes, that is about 20%.  If you are trying to send BTC 0.5, then this will correspond to a fee of about 0.2%.  For comparison, credit cards typically have a fee of around 3%. </p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Is anyone still using BTC?</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Obviously yes.  Transaction fees are based on supply and demand - the network only allows so many (bytes of) transactions in each block, so fees are effectively bidding for space in a block.  If "nobody" was using Bitcoin, you would see fees become very low.</p>

<p>Note that there are several current proposals for increasing the block size, or otherwise allowing a higher volume of transactions on the network.  If and when any of those take effect, fees should come down.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Maybe I'm doing something wrong here but after some checks on <a href="https://bitcoinfees.21.co/" rel="noreferrer">https://bitcoinfees.21.co/</a> and blockchain it seems that those are the real fees and people just keep paying them. Why?</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Because paying a high fee to spend Bitcoins may still be better than not spending them at all?</p>

<p>See also <a href="https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/53290/is-it-normal-to-not-own-your-bitcoins-are-6-transaction-fees-normal?rq=1">Is it normal to not &quot;own&quot; your bitcoins? Are 6% transaction fees normal?</a></p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-06-13T14:52:01.373Z
So I just misled myself when I thought that BTC is great for micro-payments. It now seems that it's great for bigger payments. Thanks.
Ricardo
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-06-13T14:56:20.273Z
@Ricardo: Indeed, as I understand it, Bitcoin was never designed or intended to be particularly suitable for micropayments.  It just so happened that due to relatively low demand, it did work well for that purpose for a number of years.  There are related schemes for doing Bitcoin micropayments with transactions off the blockchain; see for instance https://lightning.network/
Nate Eldredge
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-06-13T15:59:09.880Z
I agree with @NateEldredge on this one.  I first became interested in bitcoin years ago because I thought it would be good for micropayments.  I quickly decided it wasn't, even though the average fee was around $0.02 USD at the time.  The lightning network, on the other hand, should be well suited for micropayments.
Jestin
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-06-16T10:13:49.370Z
@NateEldredge You might want to add to the size of the transaction part, because people think paying from A -> B as simple, but A may be made up of multiple inputs which bloats the transaction so it's (A1+A2+A3+A4+.. -> B).  As an analogy, paying for coffee with a £5 note is fine, one input, get some change back, paying in copper coins is a lot of inputs.
Daniel Morritt
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-06-13T14:40:37.377Z
2017-06-13T14:46:37.563Z
2017-06-13T14:46:37.563Z
Nate Eldredge
<p>I'm not an expert with BTC or other cryptocurrencies but It was a pleasant way to do some micro transactions and to deal with some vendors.</p>

<p>My question is, why the hell an average Fee is around 20% of the transaction? THIS IS HUGE.</p>

<p>Is anyone still using BTC? Maybe I'm doing something wrong here but after some checks on <a href="https://bitcoinfees.21.co/" rel="noreferrer">https://bitcoinfees.21.co/</a> and blockchain it seems that those are the real fees and people just keep paying them. Why?</p>

<p>Screenshot: <a href="http://take.ms/muElO" rel="noreferrer">http://take.ms/muElO</a></p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-06-13T20:23:04.180Z
Related (almost a dupe): https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/20795/12411
cHao
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-06-14T09:19:18.400Z
It was asked 3 years ago, could be non-relevant anymore. Also this question received 1,677 views in 24 hours while the other one received 1,000 views in a year. So I guess it's not directly "a dupe", otherwise visitors would just google it.
Ricardo
<transaction-fees>
Is a 20% fee normal right now?
Ricardo
# Is a 20% fee normal right now?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2017-06-13)

I'm not an expert with BTC or other cryptocurrencies but It was a pleasant way to do some micro transactions and to deal with some vendors.

My question is, why the hell an average Fee is around 20% of the transaction? THIS IS HUGE.

Is anyone still using BTC? Maybe I'm doing something wrong here but after some checks on <https://bitcoinfees.21.co/> and blockchain it seems that those are the real fees and people just keep paying them. Why?

Screenshot: <http://take.ms/muElO>

**Tags:** transaction-fees

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Related (almost a dupe): https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/20795/12411  
> **username_0**: It was asked 3 years ago, could be non-relevant anymore. Also this question received 1,677 views in 24 hours while the other one received 1,000 views in a year. So I guess it's not directly "a dupe", otherwise visitors would just google it.  

---

## 2 answers

### Answer by username_3 on 2017-06-13. Score: 12 | Accepted answer

It's misleading to look at transaction fees as a percentage. Bitcoin transaction fees are based on the size of the transaction **in bytes**, regardless of the value being transacted.

According to the site you linked,

> The fastest and cheapest transaction fee is currently 0.0000042 BTC/byte, shown in green at the top.
> For the median transaction size of 226 bytes, this results in a fee of 0.0009492 BTC.

If you are trying to send BTC 0.005, then yes, that is about 20%. If you are trying to send BTC 0.5, then this will correspond to a fee of about 0.2%. For comparison, credit cards typically have a fee of around 3%.

> Is anyone still using BTC?

Obviously yes. Transaction fees are based on supply and demand - the network only allows so many (bytes of) transactions in each block, so fees are effectively bidding for space in a block. If "nobody" was using Bitcoin, you would see fees become very low.

Note that there are several current proposals for increasing the block size, or otherwise allowing a higher volume of transactions on the network. If and when any of those take effect, fees should come down.

> Maybe I'm doing something wrong here but after some checks on <https://bitcoinfees.21.co/> and blockchain it seems that those are the real fees and people just keep paying them. Why?

Because paying a high fee to spend Bitcoins may still be better than not spending them at all?

See also [Is it normal to not "own" your bitcoins? Are 6% transaction fees normal?](https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/53290/is-it-normal-to-not-own-your-bitcoins-are-6-transaction-fees-normal?rq=1)

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: So I just misled myself when I thought that BTC is great for micro-payments. It now seems that it's great for bigger payments. Thanks.  
> **username_3**: @username_0: Indeed, as I understand it, Bitcoin was never designed or intended to be particularly suitable for micropayments.  It just so happened that due to relatively low demand, it did work well for that purpose for a number of years.  There are related schemes for doing Bitcoin micropayments with transactions off the blockchain; see for instance https://lightning.network/  
> **username_4**: I agree with @username_3 on this one.  I first became interested in bitcoin years ago because I thought it would be good for micropayments.  I quickly decided it wasn't, even though the average fee was around $0.02 USD at the time.  The lightning network, on the other hand, should be well suited for micropayments.  
> **username_5**: @username_3 You might want to add to the size of the transaction part, because people think paying from A -> B as simple, but A may be made up of multiple inputs which bloats the transaction so it's (A1+A2+A3+A4+.. -> B).  As an analogy, paying for coffee with a £5 note is fine, one input, get some change back, paying in copper coins is a lot of inputs.  

---

### Answer by username_2 on 2017-06-14. Score: -2

Unfortunately the fees are growing these days and now we can't even buy a cup of coffee because the fees will be half the price of a coffee itself. The more people using bitcoin the higher the fees.


---

