Bitcoin fees as high as $50, transactions still slow to confirm, new messaging system on BlockTrades

in #blocktrades6 years ago (edited)

Increased fees on Bitcoin transactions

Due to the increasing price of bitcoin transactions, we've upped the max fee our site will pay to get a bitcoin transaction to confirm quicker. Currently a bitcoin transaction from our site will cost around $50 USD.

One friend told me yesterday that he spent $100 USD to pay for a bitcoin transaction to confirm faster and it still took all day to confirm.

Unconfirmed Bitcoin transactions

We have a lot of unconfirmed bitcoin transactions outstanding at this point, some up to 3 days old. We believe all of them will eventually confirm, but it could still be several days before that happens.

Please note that we are unable to cancel a transaction after we've sent it, so the only thing to do is to wait until it confirms.

New messaging system on BlockTrades

We've also added a new messaging system to our site to allow us to warn customers of significant issues of this sort. Previously we've just used Steem posts in our News section, but the new messaging system allows us to add visibility to important notices such as a rapid change in change in transaction fees.

The new system message allows our system administrators to dynamically place warning messages on our site in a timely fashion, without requiring coding changes to our web site.

Below is an example of the messaging system being used to notify users of the high fees for bitcoin transactions right now:

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I saw the new fee ( 50$)
and I placed new order : Transfer 91.648 SBD to blocktrades318bc1f7-ed4a-47f6-b290-05c723314882
Hopping this time will be fine and quick with the new fee..
Have a great weekend..
Merry christmas..

I got the first confirmation after 20 miuntes..
Keep the good work..
Thank you..

Hi. I have a coinbase account and I saw a "network fee" of $20+ just to send $80 worth of BTC to an account I have at binance. However, I noticed that by moving the $80 worth of LTC to my binance account, the "network fee" was about $2. I am new to this crypto currency exchange, but it seems that there are different fees associated with different altcoins. I believe it has something to do with how the coins are maintained on the network.

So what you could do is exchange the BTC to another type of coin like LTC in-house to the platform (i.e. coinbase) which is usually a lower fee in the $2 or $3 range. Then send that LTC to another platform like binance so that you are not paying HI transfer fees.

Coinbase is a complete joke. If they would adopt Segwit Wallets the fees would drop significantly and the backlog would begin to go away. Its a complete joke how such a big exchange can be so incompetent.

They've been dodging the question forever @vogeltron1, but they finally said they'd adopt it.... in 2018...

If they did adopt Segwit wallets, their customers could pay much smaller fees and it would help the Bitcoin network, but not by a huge amount. We need massive Segwit adoption plus Lightning Network release for a total fix.

@mooncryption I agree with you about the mass adoption. But when some of the largest exchanges haven't adopted yet, its a joke. I read that Bitpay will finally be getting Segwit Wallets as well in 2018. Hopefully it starts happening soon. The Lightening Network and all the other cool stuff is waiting for that to happen.

At this point I believe exchanges that are tending towards the BCH side are resisting towards SegWit.

Notice how Coinbase, which recently added BCH, is resistant towards Segwit. Bitpay, which was a supporter of the 2X fork and is planning to add BCH, is resistant towards Segwit.

Meanwhile, exchanges like Bitstamp who are heavily invested in the original Bitcoin add Segwit almost instantly (Bitstamp added months ago).

Bitcoin is becoming only for the wealthy..... Or it's a dinosaur.

@blocktrades im starting to see really long wait times for my steem/steem dollar purchases via lite coin most recently going on 8 hours about as im writting this post. Almost 2 hours last night for etherium and now 8 + for lite coin? This is becoming very concerning.

😑

Did your litecoin confirm ok? If so, did we send you the Steem?

I wanted to add an update to my comment. Although there are high fees, you can make money from Coinbase as well. Look at my most recent blog about this. Happened in the past few hours. Maybe you might get luckier than me.

https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@yomaicoin/make-a-usd1000-in-seconds-on-coinbase

Thanks for this. This does sound more promising and rewarding.

I bought via coinbase with bitcoin and seems like its going to be a while? Any ideas for the timeframe for this type of transfer? Also I am new please help me get some upvotes snd tips! https://steemit.com/steem/@dynamicrypto/mine-with-a-cryptologist

Hi @blocktrades

Can you help me understand the verbiage? When you say "We have a lot of unconfirmed bitcoin transactions outstanding at this point, some up to 3 days old. " What does that mean? Are they stuck in the backlog on the bitcoin network or are they still in you system waiting to transmit?

I sent a SDB to BTC transaction 3 days ago
(79.362 SBD to 1d25179d-5d39-4189-9b47-2a96c4abea9e)
and I've yet to see any kind of memo post in my wallet.

My SDB to BTC transaction I sent 4 days ago processed in about an hour.

Just wondering where I stand.

Thanks!

It means they are stuck in the backlog of the bitcoin network. We can process an SBD transaction in about 3-9 seconds generally.

right now i need to just hold and dont move bitcoin :)

I was thinking of holding as well, but I do see an opportunity here. I am not too familiar with investing, but altcoins could be another investment avenue to make money on the drop and rise of altcoin value.

BTC did drop a lot in the past few hours. But there was a moment in that drop, that the price rose again well over $500 before dropping again. Money could have been made in that moment if someone was really watching closely and bought before the rise, and sold before the drop. Beginning to sound like what a day trader does in the stock market.

My only dilemma is finding a good trading platform to buy and sell with. I was at first using Coinbase, but during this drop and rise of the price, trading was disabled because of platform issues. Not very good for me as a customer.

yep totally agree with you but i was stuck in btc with all money :( and i miss out the drop now i need to wait rise without profit :( That is the market rules ;)

I am fairly new at buying and selling cryptocurrency, but what "market rules" are you referring to. Do you mean at a particular online trading platform, you can buy a altcoin again during a certain period after just selling? Can you elaborate more? I am eager to learn as well as share. Thanks.

Its mean like after every big grow in price how bitcoin made this the last two month should be a big dump like was few days ago :) is doesn't matter is bitcoin or altcoin ;)

Thanks. I understand what you mean. Here's another blog of mine referencing differences in BTC prices between Coinbase and Binance. A $1000 difference. Any thoughts on this?

https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@yomaicoin/coinbase-and-binance-prices-differ

All exchange with fiat currency to btc have high price than real market price ;)

Money could have been made in that moment if someone was really watching closely and bought before the rise, and sold before the drop.

Money was def made at that moment:)

I'm holding too! But it's kind of against my will, because if I ever wanted to move my Bitcoin, I'd have to pay $50 or some crazy fee!

I'm holding ,too on my little SBD...

good choice )

I'm holding also. That's the smart move. I see it dipping right now, but pushing upward (at a steady pace) after tax season

You all are doing just fine!
Just take a deep breath, and forget about Bitcoin for the day.

or just convert to other much faster and less expensive coins. The fees are just to damn high for sending or buying with bitcoins. This could be the reason why bitcoin will fail eventually

I don't think bitcoin will fail the community will find a way to solve this problem soon :)

I was taking a look at bitshares the other day. It looks interesting, is there anyone who could represent it for an interview?

Maybe ask around this telegram group: https://web.telegram.org/#/im?p=@BitSharesDEX

Thanks guys for the update - I sent some SBD for Bitcoin purchase yesterday and will wait out the next few days for confirmation in my wallet.

Cheers guys! have a good Christmas!!

Keep up the good work!

It makes more sense if possible to do transactions with LTC.
It will be a time where transactions in BTC will be for high sales.
BTC now is going backwards.
Keep on steemit

It's time to offer transactions in Bitcoin Cash!!

I just posted a rant about Bitpay not working with Exodus wallets. Basically, I have to transfer my BTC from Exodus to Electrum ($50 cost) before I can send it out over the BitPay network (yet another transaction fee).

https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@sirstacksalot/bitcoin-payment-protocol-sucks-for-us-exodus-users

nice upgrade and notice the Fee warning right away. Going to send over some LTC later today. Thank you
@robertmannino

Sending over more !!!
Thank you
Steemit.com

@blocktrades For transactions that have been in limbo for nearly 3 days, will those be considered stuck and refunded? There is a point of no return for some transactions, it would be nice to at least have the steem back.

3 days isn't nearly the point of no return. Bitcoin transactions can take weeks. In one case, a customer sent us a transaction that didn't confirm for a month (but they paid a really low fee).

Thank you for the response, I just didn't know.

Passed 3 days with no confirmation: https://blockchain.info/tx/760e51dd55ef4c456262ce73c52def66b6724741bc6c0090eb78ac2db542b131

Will transfers from then ever go thru?

We had a transaction sent by one customer take a month to confirm.

wow, probably shouldn't refresh every 5 minutes then lol. It was sent with "Fee per byte 308.585 sat/B". I have no idea if that is high. I would gladly pay extra to expedite it. Don't see any such option on block trades yet though.

We may add an option to pay for acceleration in future. There's so many things to do, it's a difficult thing to prioritize.

That's a decent amount, I think it will go through for sure. I suspect this whole thing was mainly caused by some bitcoin miners temporarily moving to bch. Probably they will wait till difficulty drops, then move back to mining bitcoin.

You are right. Thats great news for blocktrades user that you given in this post. thanks for adding this new messaging system on Blocktrades.

My transaction got confirmed finally after 3 days. I think it kept me from panic selling :) Also props to @blocktrades for answering all my panic emails and steemit posts!

Would Local bitcoin and remitano P2P exchange be any different?

No, the issue of high fees is a global one for any bitcoin transfers. Fees have dropped somewhat now, at least in relative $ terms, due to decrease in bitcoin price.

copied

So BTC is a global Bobo !!? 🤔

Use Litecoin (LTC) if you want cheap (low fee) and quick confirmation transactions. @blocktrades supports LTC as well, so you can use that for exchanges!

The entire reason for this fee issue is a scaling limit imposed on top of Bitcoin, though there are a number of solutions. You can read my article on this if you want to.

Thanks @blocktrades!

Even though it is slow I believe it is safe as they take great care on every transaction

And it's not their fault but that of the Bitcoin transaction system.
The BTC devs need to come up with ideas on how to immediately mitigate the high-fee, slow confirmation situation. It won't do to continually sidestep this critical issue with "The Lightning network will resolve all these..."

Looking forward to innovation in both mathematics and technology to help register these transactions quicker.

The solutions have long been there. See how Litecoin does it. Its transactions may not be ultra cheap and ultra fast like DigiByte or Verge, for instance. But it's miles better compared to the expensive gridlock of Bitcoin.

Unfortunately, there are the debilitating politics and ego, and vested interests who don't care about users per se. Just "power and prestige", and "fees".

i agree with u...

it seems scalability is an urgent issue to fix

TRUE, it IS an urgent issue

I can't believe the transaction fees have gotten that high at this point. It is definitely one of the biggest flaws of the currency.

Ripple can be a boon and it is rising too!
Ripple is now valued over $1
https://steemit.com/cryptocurrency/@shaikhajwad/ripple-breaks-usd1-what-s-next

I look at it as more of the "Backbone" currency of all the alt-coins. It should only be used for larger transactions and service providers should combine them.

Lol RIP Bitcoin.

There are so many alt-coins that have low transaction fees. People should only transact with Bitcoin if it is necessary.

Even coinbase charged me 35$ fee to move 80 dollars worth of bitcoin to try and buy alt currency. Is there anyway around that because don’t you have to buy altcoin with ethereum or bitcoin?

I noticed the Fee box that have with such absurdly high values. They need to be combining transactions and using SegWit.

some time ago i send some SBD sent @blocktrades for withdraw in my coinbase account but you didn't sent this..please tell me why?

It's sent, please read this post to understand why it hasn't arrived yet. Also, I see your most recent trx was refunded, because amount wasn't high enough to pay bitcoin transaction fee.

There is no denying it, #Bitcoin transaction fees are becoming high. It is time for wallets and exchanges to start using SegWit as soon as possible. Then we should put all effort on supporting Lightning development

Yes, we've enabled segwit, that's why our input deposit addresses for bitcoin start with a "3" instead of a "1" now.

What Altcoins do you recommend to transact which have lower fees and faster?

DOGE, ETH, LTC are all good ones that are supported by many exchanges that handle fiat.

Which exchanges offer DOGE,ETH, LTC to Fiat? I must be missing something. Coinbase doesn't offer altcoin to Fiat and Wirex only does Bitcoin to Fiat.

I am forced to buy bitcoin to turn my crypto into fiat (for Germany). So if you know exchanges that offer altcoin to fiat that would be awesome.

on coinbase, I think you must first buy btc, then exchange there for ltc or eth. It's all on their site, so there's no need to do a bitcoin transfer. Then you do a transfer with the eth or ltc.

I think kraken may support direct fiat purchase of eth. They support euros, so probably a better choice for you anyways.

And vice-versa if you are going to fiat. You can transfer alt coin to your exchange, trade it there for btc, then get fiat for the btc.

Coinbase doesn't work for Germany.

Buying fiat with Eth sounds good tho. I will definitely check it out.

Thank you.

The new messaging system will make customer experience much better. Especially when we are talking about higher fees someone placing a trade may not be aware of, or some other important info, such as delays or whatever else. Great

Does BlockTrades have multiple outputs for all the accumulated transactions? Do they use SegWit?

Yes, we've enabled segwit, that's why our input deposit addresses for bitcoin start with a "3" instead of a "1" now. We don't combine multiple outputs as our transaction volume traditionally wasn't high enough to warrant it (we process each transaction separately). But our transaction volume has increased by about 5x recently, so it's something we'll probably need to look into as soon as we can. It's only an incremental savings though.

very nice message @blocktrades, I was a little surprised yesterday saw the news when wanting to make a transaction.

Thanks for the notice!

Yeah..these informations will help our community to grow.. thanks for sharing..

this will be difficult for the new user i think and it will demotivate the new user in my opinion :)

yes, I think it's probably partly responsible for recent drop in btc price.

Definitely an interesting time for bitcoin, I suspect the price will continue to drop. Thx so much for being upfront about this. It speaks volumes about your ethics.

thank you @blocktrades, post that gives good enough information

Great job. I like your services.

Have you noticed that its BCH doing micro transactions to try and make btc look bad?

Doing 'micro transactions' to sabotage bitcoin would cost a fortune at $50 a transaction... not likely a good business strategy.

What do you mean with micro transactions @bitcoinflood ?

I hate sending bitcoin the fees are to high . I rather send litecoin is much faster and cheaper . I don't know what will happend to bitcoin I think people will see it like gold they will hold on it .I don't know just saying . and know a lot of people are cashing out for the holidays so its a good time to buy the dips am loving it alt coins are becoming stronger bitcoin is losing market cap . what do you guys think

time bitcoin prices reached the highest number some time ago I once transfered sbd to poloniex, almost 2 weeks I waited for and now have entered

As long as it is safe, it's okay, its Christmas and there's a high demand. They used it to buy gifts, etc.

I agree with you!

with all these RIDICULOUS TRANSACTION FEES, its time to explore other cryptos that are worth much lesser.. and maybe some nice ICOs.

BITCOIN may be the first, but it may not be the one which will be with us till end of time.. hahaha

@blocktrades Every time I try to Buy, the blocktrades page is blank. I am on a mac, using Safari. I also tried using Firefox, but same blank page. Help!

And people think Bitcoin will be used by business'. What a joke. No business can operate like that and survive very long.

If the new rate ($ 50)
and I made a new order: transfer SBD Skip this time will be good the important thing is that we have to keep ahead to see what happens. Happy weekend and Christmas.

Transactions do appear to be confirming faster at the higher rate, see the current top comment from one of our customers.

Dude yell me about it. Redic....

That is true, recently I try to send less than $50, but charged will show $41 @tuhin201

Hey there 😉Feel free to follow me and upvote. Cheers 😋😚😘

Nice post @blocktrade

I love the new features! Blocktrades is excellent

true...agree with you

very good.
a couple of questions.
do you anticipate adding any more coins..such as BitCoin Cash for example?
is the 'log jam' still delaying delegations?
I intend to rent a LOT real soon....(well..a lot by my standards..)

Yes, we'll be adding more coins for sure. I hope to be able to fill most delegations by Saturday, and then we'll see how much has returned to us. I say "I" because most everyone else will be off for Christmas holidays :-)

excellent.
Retired Trucker here...Christmas is just another day.
here's hoping you can add USD to that list of coins soon.

one more thing
how long have I got to pay to 'renew' once I'm notified?

It's sent out 2 days before expiration.

I like the new features. Thank you.😍

Awesome!!!

transaction fee got high because value of bitcoin is too high .

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