Let's test the Bitcoin network today to see if it will pick up an incredibly small fee. The recommended fee was anywhere from 4-8x higher than what I paid.
I happened to have a very small amount of BTC sitting in an old wallet so why not test out the network and see what happens?
For those of you who do not send BTC very often there are some nuances to it...
Using certain wallets you can actually adjust the fee and set it to whatever you want. There are recommendations as to what the network fee should be usually. In this example I am using blockchain.info to send this BTC.
In the past the Bitcoin network was much less congested and you could send BTC for a very small fee. I remember distinctly that I sent several transactions in the past with a fee of 0.1mBTC (one ten thousandth of a BTC). Back then it was only a few cents but now that is close to 44 cents! So in this transaction I sent it with a ten cent fee (226 satoshis) which was about 1/4 of the recommended lowest fee.
You may be wondering what will happen if the transaction doesn't get confirmed... Well this is basically how it works:
- The transaction is broadcasted until it gets picked up by the network
- If the transaction fee is too small or there is no fee attached the transaction may not get picked up by the network
- The funds will be returned back to the sending address including the fee if it is not transacted within 48 hours
It's not fun when this happens but it is certainly something that happens a lot. Over the summer I sent a transaction with the recommended fee and it took roughly 40 hours to confirm.
I doubt this one will go through but if it does then it will show that people have been paying way too much in fees!
IF time is of the essence then of course you should be sending your transaction with a higher fee but it is not always necessary to send crypto with such high fees.
Let me know what you think in a comment down below :) Also if you would like me to do a price forecast or analysis on a particular coin let me know as well I would be glad to do it!
*Never invest more than you are willing to lose and always do your own research before making any investment decisions.
(All pictures are free domain images from snappygoat.com or created by myself.)
UPDATE!
I sent a second transaction to see what the effect would be. This time with a much higher fee of around $1.43.
UPDATE #2
Second transaction went through but the first one still has not :-/ Guess it will just get refunded!
UPDATE #3
THE TRANSACTION WENT THROUGH AFTER 17 1/2 HOURS!!! I'm very surprised that it actually confirmed considering how low the fee was :)