Topic: Little knowledge and understanding navigating bitcoin transaction fees - Help me (Read 206 times)

- To make it easier for you, almost all blockchain browsers offer the best average fee for the network. Personally, I use blockchair, which makes it easier for me in most cases, in addition to my Electrum wallet, which automatically adjusts fees in accordance with the state of the network.
- Currently, the best way to reduce fees is by using the Lightning Network. Using the Lightning Network requires a little bit of technical know-how but is very useful. In addition to this, it is possible to prefer the use of Segwit addresses to reduce the volume of the transaction and thus reduce the value of the fees imposed on it.
- Basically, the miners are the ones who mainly control the toll traffic on the network. Fees often go up when the network becomes overcrowded and miners prefer higher-fee transactions only.
- Same answer of the first question ; To make it easier for you, almost all blockchain browsers offer the best average fee for the network. Personally, I use blockchair, which makes it easier for me in most cases, in addition to my Electrum wallet, which automatically adjusts fees in accordance with the state of the network.

The number of transactions usually drops during the weekend, which means lower transaction fees at that time. But you're totally right when you say we can't exactly predict when too many people will start making transactions on the Bitcoin network. It takes a bit of active online monitoring and timing which I personally like to do sometimes, especially if I'm not in a rush.

There is no way to know exactly when too many people are trying to make transactions on the Bitcoin network, and countries and regions have different time zones. The appropriate way to minimize transaction fees is to consolidate your inputs and also to use segwit addresses.

I know all the answers have been given already, but I just wanted to chip in the answers in a manner that someone new to cryptocurrency like myself can simply understand.

Refresh the https://mempool.space/ website just before you make transactions so you see the fee that is okay to use depending on how quickly you want the transaction completed.

Make transactions when there is no too many people trying to transact at the time. Best time should be in the night or very early hours of the day when the network does not have many people on it.

It depends on your preference transaction speed to determine the right transaction. Choose the default transaction if you want to have a normal speed and cost that is right to the current mempool status. Just like other mention, You can check the mempool for the suggested fee per transaction speed. Mempool is the website that can answer all your questions.



Again, these questions will be answered by mempool, The pending transaction that flooded the mempool affects a lot the fee required to process a transaction. The more busy the network is the more premium the rate of miner to process the transaction. Simple supply and demand law.

If you are withdrawing from an exchange to your Bitcoin wallet, it is the exchange that charges you fees for withdrawal, you do not pay the fees directly to the miners, it is the exchange that combines all the withdrawals they want to process at that time into one transaction, thus you can't adjust the fees in that situation. But if you are sending from your own personal wallet into an exchange address, you can adjust/customize the fees. Mind you that the only way to make your transaction faster if you are making the transaction from your own personal wallet is to pay a higher fee.

Op, if you want to make a transaction from your wallet to the exchange or withdraw from the exchange to your wallet make sure you choose the same type of Bitcoin wallet. some exchanges seem to have the option to change the Bitcoin address according to the type you are using. maybe it can reduce the fees you have to pay. but maybe it helps your transaction to be faster.
maybe this thread (The Importance of Identifying Different Type of Bitcoin Address) can provide additional knowledge regarding the various types of Bitcoin addresses you may encounter. hope it helps you.

All the above answers are good, and perhaps in an attempt to simplify the explanation, as the easiest way is to use a wallet that enables you to modify the fees, know the number of inputs, outputs, the type of addresses and then use https://mempool.space/ to estimate the fees according to your need, do you want to confirm them in the nearest block Or are you in no hurry.

My words may be a little complicated, especially if you do not know anything about bitcoin, and therefore I suggest you watch Andreas Antonopoulos' videos, and these are some of them^[1][2][3].

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zL9Nu39qft4
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FffX32ENGKc
[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JJQLzjAF9k

Mempool is your friend, https://mempool.space/

You just have to look at the priorities, as what the current transaction fee is and you are good to go. I know that we can't go back to where we have like 1 sat/vB as fees. Nevertheless, several months ago there was a huge increased in fees because of the whole network congestion due to BRC-20 token. But it seems that we are back to normal, like 4 sat/vB might get your transaction confirmed in the next couple of hours. If you are in a hurry then you need to up the fee, currently set to 6 sat/vB.

If you don't want to used mempool then this one might help you @BitcoinFeesAlert_bot in Telegram and type /fees to get the current fees.

Right from your wallet you will be informed the amount to be charged for your transaction before sending it, you could also see this prior the time you wanted to send to know the lowest rate and the highest fee rate base on the mempool information you received.


Yes, you can use the lowest transaction fee under low priority especially when using wallet like electrum which allows fees readjustment, secondly, you can use the electrum wallet and select static option then send your transactions and use the transaction id on Viabtc to boost your transactions and make it faster with a customizable anf affordable fee rate, many people use the mining pool for these function as well, lower your transaction cost and boost your transaction confirmation time.


The more congestions we have on the mempool for performing transactions the higher the tendencies for the fees and the lesser the mempool gets congested the lower the fee tends to appear.


Mempool.space/

Check https://www.mempool.space/ for the current transaction fees on the Bitcoin network. This is where you would be able to find out how much time it will take for a transaction to confirm depending on the fee you choose.


Yes, if you are using noncustodial wallets like Electrum and others. You can reduce the transaction after checking the memepool but this might result in your transaction getting delayed or even not getting confirmed.


In most cases, it depends on the sudden volume rise on the network that results in congestion. Sometimes the miners are also responsible as they start accepting high-fee transactions first and low-fee transactions later.

One of the easiest ways to check the curent fee rate is to use MemPool Space's easy-to-use tool. It shows the current fees for low, medium, and high priority fees. https://mempool.space/

Yes, if you use a wallet that gives you manual control over your fees, then you can send it as low as 1 sat/vbyte but it might never confirm with the current fe rate bottoming out at around 6 sats/vbyte. I personally use Sparrow wallet (https://sparrowwallet.com/) because it gives me the highest level of manual control over selecting UTXOs, miner fees, fee bumping, and a bunch of other useful parameters.

Fees are largely influenced by supply and demand for limited block space but unlike traditional payments, fees are not a percentage of the amount being sent. Instead, bitcoin fees are based on the amount of data in the transaction. The more inputs and outputs you are using, the greater the fees. The fewer the number of inputs/outputs, the lower the fees. 

Again, mempool space is probably the best tool for this. You can use the standard charts seen here: https://mempool.space/graphs/mempool and you can select a timeframe that you would like to see by sliding the timeframe from one side to another. Here is the fee rate for the last month: https://mempool.space/graphs/mempool#1m

Bit Feed is another fun and useful tool to better understand how fees work. It's a visual tool that shows a live feed of transactions as they are sent. You can hover over each and every transaction to view the number of inputs/outputs, total fees paid, fee rate and a couple other metrics. https://bits.monospace.live/

You might also find this resource useful for getting a basic understanding for how fees work: https://www.whatisbitcoin.com/learn/what-is-a-transaction-fee

Those recommended fees are not always right in the electrum because there is a slight delay in the fetching of fee after each block so if you are unlucky you may pay higher or lower fee than it is required so it is always better to check the Mempool on your own and see if it matches in the electrum too, if it's not don't hesitate to choose your custom fee.

Check the mempool.

• Choose a wallet that allows you to personalize transaction fees.
• Use the Lightning network.
• Use Native SegWit or Bech32 addresses, those that start with bc1.
• Choose the right timing when making transactions. Consult the mempool first.
• Decrease the size of your transaction by consolidating your UTXOs.

• There's a high demand for block space. People are willing to pay high fees in the competition.
• Your transaction size.
• The network is congested.
• You're using a legacy address.

Check the mempool.

Minimize your transaction fee with Electrum wallet

Not all knowledge about it but you will get basics in my topic.

To summarize, in order to reduce your transaction fee by yourself, you must control your wallet, inputs, fee rate which are only available with non custodial wallets. If you use custodial wallets like online accounts, exchange accounts, you will not have control of your wallets (don't have its private keys).

Next, choose good fee rate to use like I described in my topics.

You can exploit times like weekends that usually have lower, cheaper fee rates and avoid active hours of USA.

Both your question will be answered well on Electrum wallet. When you use Electrum there is recommended fee appears before sign and broadcasting the transaction, I always use that recommendation and never have a problem with it, my transaction is always fast received in minutes. In Electrum, you can set it also the minimum fee like 1 satoshi, but of course the smaller your fee the longer that being confirmed, it depends on how many transactions on every block.

The others have already given you some excellent links for this, mempool.space is the most effective one in my opinion, but that's a personal opinion, I really like the UI.

Let me add this one : https://jochen-hoenicke.de/queue/#BTC,1w,weight
It is a little more difficult to understand, but much more accurate.


You can read this article for some basic tips and better understanding about the BTC's fees : Bitcoin Fees and Ways to Reduce Them

If you want to go and learn deeper, you should read Mastering Bitcoin from Andreas M.Antonopoulos. The book is available for free on Github . If you read this book, transactions and fees won't have any secret for you 

1. This is dependent the speed at which you want the transaction to be confirmed.

2. You can edit the transaction fee field and put the amount you want to pay for the transaction. Lower fees gets lower priority to be confirmed. To prevent your transaction from stuck in the mempool, don't set it too low. You can also reduce the transaction fee by:

• Making transaction when the bitcoin network is not under huge demand.
• You can utilize the bitcoin lightening network.
• Use SegWit addresses

3. There are a number of factors that affects the transaction fees. If there are more transactions to be confirmed, it might create a bottleneck.
4. https://mempool.space is the site to use. An alternative is blockchain.com's bitcoin transaction fee/USD chart here: https://www.blockchain.com/explorer/charts/fees-usd-per-transaction

You can use https://mempool.space/

Use segwit addresses. Addresses that starts from bc1.

The more the input, the more the fee. Assuming Alice sent you bitcoin one time, the higher the fee if the bitcoin is sent two times and you want to spend all at ones, making it to have 2 inputs.

The second is mempool congestion. If the mempool is more congested, the higher the fee.

Another is the type of address that you are using. Using legacy address will be of higher fee. Using segwit will be of lower fee.

If calculating the fee in fiat, bitcoin price in that fiat is also among.

Use https://mempool.space/

You can always check on blockchair first page to see the recent price per byte.. as the fee is relatively low this few days
 Yes this depends on the wallet that you are using to send out your transaction. Their is Always custom settings available as you can use the amount of SATs that can be charge on the transaction. That reducing it will increase the time which it will cost for the transaction to be confirmed.

Block congestion I guess. Just as what happened few months ago when the blocks was flooded with NFTS.