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102 sats \ 2 replies \ @Solomonsatoshi 28 Aug \ on: Have we all been overpaying for Bitcoin transactions? bitcoin
How exactly do you suggest that transaction fees were artificially inflated over the last few years?
It's a free market where supply and demand operate to decide the price, surely?
I would however suggest that the narrative of Bitcoin being a speculative commodity to stack and hold, and not use as a P2P payments protocol is reducing transaction volumes and demand and if this trend continues longer term it threatens the entire viability of funding Bitcoins security. The block subsidies decrease in Bitcoin terms predictably and if the speculative commodity narrative continues to overwhelm the P2P payments protocol narrative Bitcoin becomes both less inherently secure and increasingly hostage to institutional and speculator custody and control.
I was suggesting that fees were artificially inflated by having an artificial floor of 1 sat/vB when it is clear that the actual floor is lower than this. Just in this year alone, any time there were empty mempools and you wanted to get a transaction confirmed, you could have been paying sub 1 sat/vB rates, but because the standard was 1 sat/vB, that's what you paid. It was an artificial (and arbitrary) standard, though.
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I see what you mean.
Just opened Electrum and the lowest fee rate does seem limited to 1 sat/vB and there is no obvious way to make an offer lower than 1 sat/vB.
When I try to manually set a fee below 1 s/vB I get this message-
'This transaction requires a higher fee, or it will not be propagated by your current server. Try to raise your transaction fee, or use a server with a lower relay fee.'
Clearly some wallets have realised less than 1 can be sufficient currently.
Nice problem to have from a users perspective, but still concerning that transaction demand is so low and use as a MoE is in apparent free fall at least on the primary blockchain.
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