5 ms·

Tried to send bitcoin yesterday ($120) to an online retailer, the fee was $31.50 which I did not have. So I went to buy more bitcoin and realized it would cost

by delbel 9y ago

Tried to send bitcoin yesterday ($120) to an online retailer, the fee was $31.50 which I did not have. So I went to buy more bitcoin and realized it would cost additional $31.50 to transfer the new bitcoins just to cover the other network fees. Had to do it, then for whatever reason my account was put on 72 hour hold. So I just gave up, literally out $200 with nothing to show. Bitcoin is a complete joke if you can't actually use it.

brokensegue 9y ago
I would've thought having to pay a $31 txn fee on a $100 purchase would've been enough to dissuade you.
- Johnny555 9y ago
  If it's a product he really wants and is only available via bitcoin payment, it could well be worth it. I've paid $30 shipping for a < $100 item before when I really needed it to be delivered on time, so I can see paying a $30 surcharge to purchase an item.
  - Buttes6 9y ago
    >If it's a product he really wants and is only available via bitcoin payment, it could well be worth it. cough drugs cough
    - s0rce 9y ago
      Doesn't that use Monero or something, I don't know, not a big black market cryptocurrency drug connoisseur.
  - goldenkey 9y ago
    Sounds like shilling for Bitcoin. Even if we all sometimes pay exorbitant amounts for priority shipping, doesn't mean we want to do that and get _no reward_ because "Bitcoin." The fees on Bitcoin currently make it practically unusable. If you want to argue for edge cases, go ahead. But please don't try to give these edge cases any mediocrum of regularity and sensibility...
    - Johnny555 9y ago
      It seems like common sense, not shilling: if what you're buying is only available with Bitcoin, then you get more of a reward than when you pay for expensive shipping -- if you don't pay whatever the transaction fees end up being, then you won't get the product at all.
      - goldenkey 9y ago
        You don't get a reward when you buy something - you get your purchased goods. The mental yoga necessary to consider a purchased good as a reward is absolutely baffling.
  - brokensegue 9y ago
    there are barely products for sale with bitcoin much less bitcoin exclusive products. only things i can think of are ransoms and drugs. i'm sure there are others but this isn't super common.
    - Johnny555 9y ago
      Sure, it may not be common, but still, my point stands. If you're buying some uncommon product that's only available with bitcoin, then paying a 30% transaction fee might be worth it versus not being able to purchase the product at all.
      - brokensegue 9y ago
        uh sure your point stands. pretty weak point? in obscure circumstances it might be worth performing the unappetizing act of paying bitcoin transaction fees to buy something.
aaronm14 9y ago
I had a similar fee when I tried to send a friend $30 of BTC to a paper wallet for Christmas. Ended up just walking him through setting up a Coinbase account and gave him $30 cash and he just link his own credit card (although he was never able to get past the pending account verification)
StavrosK 9y ago
You can set your own fees. I paid $3 for a transaction today (but it obviously still hasn't verified, and I don't know when it will). That's kind of the tradeoff, unfortunately. These days, I find Bitcoin completely unsuitable for sending money. I use Bitcoin Cash, which verifies in ten minutes for something like one cent of fees (first block), but I guess that's because nobody uses it. Still, Bitcoin itself is out of the question for me personally, I'm not paying $30 for a transaction for anything.
- dannyw 9y ago
  Bitcoin cash doesn’t have artificially low constraints on capacity. 10 years ago, it was 1MB. Despite all the advancements of storage and networking, it’s still essentially 1MB to a maximum of 1.8MB if everyone implements a complicated and costly to develop system called SegWit, and to fully use SegWit you have to use backwards incompatible addresses.
- zeep 9y ago
  Bitcoin Cash has enough space in it's blocks to cover all of Bitcoin's and Bitcoin Cash' transactions.... for now. Your $3 Bitcoin transaction might get cancelled before it gets written to the blockchain...
anonymous5133 9y ago
That's why you should use bitcoin cash instead. Cost me 1 penny to send any amount. I get confirmation within first block too.

by delbel 9y ago

brokensegue 9y ago

I would've thought having to pay a $31 txn fee on a $100 purchase would've been enough to dissuade you.

Johnny555 9y ago
If it's a product he really wants and is only available via bitcoin payment, it could well be worth it. I've paid $30 shipping for a < $100 item before when I really needed it to be delivered on time, so I can see paying a $30 surcharge to purchase an item.
- Buttes6 9y ago
  >If it's a product he really wants and is only available via bitcoin payment, it could well be worth it. cough drugs cough
  - s0rce 9y ago
    Doesn't that use Monero or something, I don't know, not a big black market cryptocurrency drug connoisseur.
- goldenkey 9y ago
  Sounds like shilling for Bitcoin. Even if we all sometimes pay exorbitant amounts for priority shipping, doesn't mean we want to do that and get _no reward_ because "Bitcoin." The fees on Bitcoin currently make it practically unusable. If you want to argue for edge cases, go ahead. But please don't try to give these edge cases any mediocrum of regularity and sensibility...
  - Johnny555 9y ago
    It seems like common sense, not shilling: if what you're buying is only available with Bitcoin, then you get more of a reward than when you pay for expensive shipping -- if you don't pay whatever the transaction fees end up being, then you won't get the product at all.
    - goldenkey 9y ago
      You don't get a reward when you buy something - you get your purchased goods. The mental yoga necessary to consider a purchased good as a reward is absolutely baffling.
- brokensegue 9y ago
  there are barely products for sale with bitcoin much less bitcoin exclusive products. only things i can think of are ransoms and drugs. i'm sure there are others but this isn't super common.
  - Johnny555 9y ago
    Sure, it may not be common, but still, my point stands. If you're buying some uncommon product that's only available with bitcoin, then paying a 30% transaction fee might be worth it versus not being able to purchase the product at all.
    - brokensegue 9y ago
      uh sure your point stands. pretty weak point? in obscure circumstances it might be worth performing the unappetizing act of paying bitcoin transaction fees to buy something.

aaronm14 9y ago

I had a similar fee when I tried to send a friend $30 of BTC to a paper wallet for Christmas. Ended up just walking him through setting up a Coinbase account and gave him $30 cash and he just link his own credit card (although he was never able to get past the pending account verification)

StavrosK 9y ago

You can set your own fees. I paid $3 for a transaction today (but it obviously still hasn't verified, and I don't know when it will). That's kind of the tradeoff, unfortunately. These days, I find Bitcoin completely unsuitable for sending money. I use Bitcoin Cash, which verifies in ten minutes for something like one cent of fees (first block), but I guess that's because nobody uses it. Still, Bitcoin itself is out of the question for me personally, I'm not paying $30 for a transaction for anything.

dannyw 9y ago
Bitcoin cash doesn’t have artificially low constraints on capacity. 10 years ago, it was 1MB. Despite all the advancements of storage and networking, it’s still essentially 1MB to a maximum of 1.8MB if everyone implements a complicated and costly to develop system called SegWit, and to fully use SegWit you have to use backwards incompatible addresses.
zeep 9y ago
Bitcoin Cash has enough space in it's blocks to cover all of Bitcoin's and Bitcoin Cash' transactions.... for now. Your $3 Bitcoin transaction might get cancelled before it gets written to the blockchain...

anonymous5133 9y ago

That's why you should use bitcoin cash instead. Cost me 1 penny to send any amount. I get confirmation within first block too.