Posts Tagged ‘BTC’

The Bitcoin Network is Congested with Unconfirmed Transactions

17, May 2017

Do you remember the time when Bitcoin was advertised as a fast and easy way to transfer money all over the world with a minimal transaction fee. Well, these times are long gone now that we are seeing the 1MB blocks full with transactions, a backlog of almost 200000 unconfirmed transactions and over 100 BTC in fees alone with almost 100MB backlog (100 blocks behind with 1MB block size). As a result there are high transaction fees that start at more than a dollar and can go as high as a couple of dollars just to have your transaction included in a block in a reasonable time. Things are not looking good, unless a consensus for a solution (even temporary) to the small block size is found as with the increase of the price of Bitcoin. Services such as online Bitcoin wallets and such have started to increase the transaction fees already so, that there will be no extra delay for their customers, the problem is that these extra costs are usually covered by the users.

For example the online Bitcoin wallet and a Bitcoin-powered debit card issuer Xapo has recently informed its customers about their plans to actually have the transaction fees for withdraws paid by the users. According to a post on Aksjebloggen.com, prior to that the service did not have users paying the fees for outgoing transactions, but the high fees associated with transfers on the Bitcoin blockchain have forced this change. With low transaction fees covering the extra cost is not a problem for some services, but with the constantly growing transaction fees you can even end up paying more for the actual transaction to be included in the blockchain than the amount you are transferring if it is just a couple of dollars.

Do you remember those promo images comparing Bitcoin to Western Union, PayPal and other popular payment services and talking about how BTC is better with the very low transaction fees cited as one of the key advantages. Well, if this trend continues and a solution is not found soon, then things might end up with Bitcoin transaction fees actually making transfers more expensive than to use a more established alternative payment method like the ones mentioned…

Bitcoin (BTC) Price Pushing Past the $1500 USD Mark

4, May 2017

The last couple of days were very good not only for the many altcoins that are rising in value, but also for Bitcoin as the crypto currency has pushed past the $1500 USD price point and seems to by trying to reach new heights every day. Not that we are complaining, however there are concerns regarding this serious peak as if it is a bubble getting ready to burst. The enthusiasm regarding crypto currencies such as Ethereum, ZCash and Litecoin as well as many other altcoins is nice and all, but we are seeing some overblown in terms of proportions ICO sales and that is also a reason for some concerns. On the positive side, if this trend continues we might be able to see new highs for BTC and other coins earlier than some optimistic predictions about prices…

Bitcoin Core 0.14.0 Released with Performance Improvements

8, Mar 2017

While the controversy surrounding Bitcoin and the block size debate among others continues with the number of transactions ranking up, filling the 1MB blocks completely and transaction fees rising we just got a new Bitcoin Core 0.14.0 release. The key aspects of the new releases are focused on improving performance for initial block download if you are starting a new full blockchain download as well as faster new block validation and relay. This is a welcome improvement that can be really useful for users with the Bitcoin blockchain data already close to 115GB in size…

Another new feature available in the 0.14.0 release is the optional fee bumping (not enabled by default) that allows users to users to increase the fee their transactions pay even after they’ve broadcast an earlier version of the transaction. This new option might be useful with the increasing number of transactions to help you move some coins at a faster speed if your initial fee was too little. This however is not a real solution for the problem with the blocks getting filled with transactions… we actually need a solution that will help keep transaction fees at a reasonable low level with the Bitcoin price still going up and that will help transactions confirm reasonably quick even with lower fees.

– For more details about the newly released Bitcoin Core 0.14.0…


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