<p>As fees for transactions are a free market and supply is limited (due to the block weight/size limit), the price will be <em>whatever people are willing to pay</em>. Those who pay less than the market rate will see their transactions slowed down or ignored; those who pay more will see them processed quickly.</p>

<p>What is not known is whether the resulting fees paid will be sufficient to keep the network secure. As security against chain rewriting is proportional to the cost spent by miners, we can expect that it is also proportional to how much miners are paid. If people are not willing to pay high fees at all, the security may collapse in a tragedy of the commons. If people do, and the value secured by the network is high, fees may grow very high as well.</p>

<p>What Bitcoin (the blockchain) technology offers you is an independent currency, beyond control of banks or nations, which permits you to autonomously audit the entire system. While you don't have to, it permits you to be your own bank and be entirely independent from third parties.</p>

<p>What it does not offer directly is a convenient payment system. Bitcoin transactions are slow, inconvenient, inefficient, and unreliable - and perhaps expensive too. They are pretty much the opposite of what a consumer would want as a payment system.</p>

<p><strong>However</strong>, due to being a natively digital currency, without third parties that can deny you access to the system, the hope is that it can be used as a base layer in a financial system upon which actual payment technology can be built (sometimes called "layer two"). A very promising proposal that is being actively worked on is Lightning. Lightning offers cheap, reliable, fast payments, on top of the Bitcoin chain. However, not every Lightning payment corresponds to a transaction on-chain. Yet, its security is very similar to the blockchain itself and still does not rely on third parties. </p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-29T19:42:19.353Z
Hello Sir,
I've been reading and hearing about the LN and the massive transforms that it's going to bring forth.
Some say that it's only speculative and unreasonable to construct.
I would like to know as to how much has been actually achieved in the construction of the LN and how much still remains. 
If there are, any speculative release dates and changes in the core that would be needed to accommodate LN.
Junaid Shaikh
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-29T19:48:10.130Z
It's operational right now and you can use it to pay for some things. The system is experimental, and the size of the channels so far is pretty limited, but it has advanced pretty rapidly the last few months. These things should probably go into a separate question, but I want to stress that LN is not necessarily the only layer 2 technology. There is a wealth of idea out there on how to build more performant or more private or more convenient systems on top of the Bitcoin blockchain, and the future may include production use of several simultaneously.
Pieter Wuille
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-29T19:57:33.043Z
Are there any resources to refer/understand such a plethora of ideas and make contributions to the development of the same. GitHub is an abyss of half-baked (except an infinitesimal few) projects when it comes to blockchain in general, making it difficult for new birds in the flock to fly in the direction of the wind.
Junaid Shaikh
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-29T19:37:53.687Z
2018-05-29T19:37:53.687Z
Pieter Wuille
<p>I think fees will get high. I don't know any prediction. I think that reward for miners in dollars will be similar to current reward, but Bitcoin will be worth much more. This is why wee need "second layer" solution. EDIT: Currently most promising layer two solution is <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning_Network" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Lightning Network</a> which should have much lower fees than layer one fees.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-29T17:22:12.773Z
what do you mean with second layer?
Enrique
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-30T08:49:34.730Z
@Enrique For example [Lightning Network](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning_Network) or [Sidechains](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidechain_%28ledger%29) or [Plasma](https://plasma.io/)
CoperNick
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-29T16:41:18.100Z
2018-05-30T08:56:59.393Z
2018-05-30T08:56:59.393Z
CoperNick
<p>Because mining is every time harder, and hence more expensive, right now is profitable because the btc is rising, but what will happen when btc price is stable and miners won't get any extra reward, only the fee.<br>
If the fee is high then we will end in a worst scenario than current transactions with banks :(<br>
Is there any approximation about this fee? (In btc because we won't know the price in usd)</p>

<p><strong>EDIT</strong><br>
similar question (but too old, without answer):
<a href="https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/876">How much will transaction fees eventually be?</a><br>
Maybe this could be a good approximation<br>
How many BTC are transferred per day (daily volume)?: <strong>750.000 BTC</strong> (source: <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bitcoin" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bitcoin</a>)<br>
How many BTC are mined (generated as reward) every day?:
<strong>1800 BTC</strong> (source: <a href="https://www.bitcoinblockhalf.com/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.bitcoinblockhalf.com/</a>)<br>
How much is paid in fee every day?: <strong>34 BTC</strong> (source: <a href="https://blockchain.info/stats" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://blockchain.info/stats</a>)   </p>

<p>So right now the fee is 34 / 750.000 = 0.0045%<br>
But if we mined everything, then we need to pay the 1800BTC to miners in fees to compensate so will be (1800+34) / 750.000 = 0.25%<br>
If this is the case I think is cheaper than current bank transactions fees... </p>

<p>But I'm not sure if this is a valid approximation, fee seems to change a lot (not sure why or even how to read this graph either): <a href="https://bitcoinfees.info/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://bitcoinfees.info/</a>  </p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-29T17:27:14.007Z
yes is the same question, but that question is too old, more than 7 years, everybody was replying "is too young, we don't know" I think BTC is much mature now, so what is the reply today? the same? we don't know what will happen with the fee?
Enrique
<transaction-fees>
How much will be the fee after all bitcoins are mined?
Enrique
# How much will be the fee after all bitcoins are mined?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-05-29)

Because mining is every time harder, and hence more expensive, right now is profitable because the btc is rising, but what will happen when btc price is stable and miners won't get any extra reward, only the fee.  
If the fee is high then we will end in a worst scenario than current transactions with banks :(  
Is there any approximation about this fee? (In btc because we won't know the price in usd)

**EDIT**  
similar question (but too old, without answer):
[How much will transaction fees eventually be?](https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/876)  
Maybe this could be a good approximation  
How many BTC are transferred per day (daily volume)?: **750.000 BTC** (source: <https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bitcoin>)  
How many BTC are mined (generated as reward) every day?:
**1800 BTC** (source: <https://www.bitcoinblockhalf.com/>)  
How much is paid in fee every day?: **34 BTC** (source: <https://blockchain.info/stats>)

So right now the fee is 34 / 750.000 = 0.0045%  
But if we mined everything, then we need to pay the 1800BTC to miners in fees to compensate so will be (1800+34) / 750.000 = 0.25%  
If this is the case I think is cheaper than current bank transactions fees...

But I'm not sure if this is a valid approximation, fee seems to change a lot (not sure why or even how to read this graph either): <https://bitcoinfees.info/>

**Tags:** transaction-fees

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: yes is the same question, but that question is too old, more than 7 years, everybody was replying "is too young, we don't know" I think BTC is much mature now, so what is the reply today? the same? we don't know what will happen with the fee?  

---

## 2 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2018-05-29. Score: 3 | Accepted answer

As fees for transactions are a free market and supply is limited (due to the block weight/size limit), the price will be *whatever people are willing to pay*. Those who pay less than the market rate will see their transactions slowed down or ignored; those who pay more will see them processed quickly.

What is not known is whether the resulting fees paid will be sufficient to keep the network secure. As security against chain rewriting is proportional to the cost spent by miners, we can expect that it is also proportional to how much miners are paid. If people are not willing to pay high fees at all, the security may collapse in a tragedy of the commons. If people do, and the value secured by the network is high, fees may grow very high as well.

What Bitcoin (the blockchain) technology offers you is an independent currency, beyond control of banks or nations, which permits you to autonomously audit the entire system. While you don't have to, it permits you to be your own bank and be entirely independent from third parties.

What it does not offer directly is a convenient payment system. Bitcoin transactions are slow, inconvenient, inefficient, and unreliable - and perhaps expensive too. They are pretty much the opposite of what a consumer would want as a payment system.

**However**, due to being a natively digital currency, without third parties that can deny you access to the system, the hope is that it can be used as a base layer in a financial system upon which actual payment technology can be built (sometimes called "layer two"). A very promising proposal that is being actively worked on is Lightning. Lightning offers cheap, reliable, fast payments, on top of the Bitcoin chain. However, not every Lightning payment corresponds to a transaction on-chain. Yet, its security is very similar to the blockchain itself and still does not rely on third parties.

> **Comments:**
> **username_2**: Hello Sir, I've been reading and hearing about the LN and the massive transforms that it's going to bring forth. Some say that it's only speculative and unreasonable to construct. I would like to know as to how much has been actually achieved in the construction of the LN and how much still remains.  If there are, any speculative release dates and changes in the core that would be needed to accommodate LN.  
> **username_1**: It's operational right now and you can use it to pay for some things. The system is experimental, and the size of the channels so far is pretty limited, but it has advanced pretty rapidly the last few months. These things should probably go into a separate question, but I want to stress that LN is not necessarily the only layer 2 technology. There is a wealth of idea out there on how to build more performant or more private or more convenient systems on top of the Bitcoin blockchain, and the future may include production use of several simultaneously.  
> **username_2**: Are there any resources to refer/understand such a plethora of ideas and make contributions to the development of the same. GitHub is an abyss of half-baked (except an infinitesimal few) projects when it comes to blockchain in general, making it difficult for new birds in the flock to fly in the direction of the wind.  

---

### Answer by username_3 on 2018-05-29. Score: 0

I think fees will get high. I don't know any prediction. I think that reward for miners in dollars will be similar to current reward, but Bitcoin will be worth much more. This is why wee need "second layer" solution. EDIT: Currently most promising layer two solution is [Lightning Network](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning_Network) which should have much lower fees than layer one fees.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: what do you mean with second layer?  
> **username_3**: @username_0 For example [Lightning Network](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning_Network) or [Sidechains](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidechain_%28ledger%29) or [Plasma](https://plasma.io/)  

---

