I got into Bitcoin from an ideological point of view, get rid of the banks... but now we miners like the high TX fee's.
But the TX fee's can't stay this high, otherwise BTC is not usable for making payments anymore.
When I stayed in LA last week it cost me $703.00 on MC - then tx fees were another $21.09 on top ... ... ... ...
Are the TX fees high in reality or just "more than free"? If you look at all the coin transferred on a block and then take the 2BTC of TX fees for the block, what is the average percentage?
This was probably a foreign transaction fee charged by Kano's bank. Keep in mind MC also charged the hotel ~$15-20 in fees.
But me personally, I love credit cards. It's negative fees (I earn miles/points) with every purchase and the merchant pays the fees.
The way I see it there is a niche market for bitcoin payment processing, and the current fees are not excessive for this market. They can be excessive for people consolidating small balances or sending small payments, but realistically bitcoin is not ever going to catch on as something people use to buy lunch. Credit/debit cards will always be faster/easier for that purpose.