Topic: problem with bitcoin payment fees - page 2. (Read 1693 times)

It does reduce the UXTO however the problem is current rules don't give an individual an incentive to do so.

As far as spendability.  Not really.  You are simply paying the fee now vs potentially paying a fee in the future.  Depending on other inputs, coin age etc it is possible the min mandatory fee will be lower or non-existent in the future.

Doesn't it reduce the UTXO, and improve the spendability of the funds that are in the wallet?


And complain to merchants/services that pay in spammy transactions and refuse to patronize their service.

There is no need to consolidate a wallet before upgrading the client.  It serves no purpose.  The issue is that the critical resource in the blockchain is space (not value).  Your wallet likely has a huge number of very small transactions (dust).  The wallet will pick inputs for the tx in an attempt to minimize fees.  As you send more and more that means the tx gets larger and larger (size not value).  Eventually you hit a point where all that is left is spammy garbage inputs (like hundreds of 0.00000001 BTC).

A couple thoughts:
a) there is no need, value, or reason to "consolidate" a wallet.
b) try to avoid engaging in "spammy" tx.  If you mine then make your payouts from the pool larger (i.e. get one 0.1 BTC payout a day instead of 10 0.01 BTC payouts). 
c) Add some more coins to your wallet.  Due to the way that Bitcoin works having more funds than you need to the wallet means on average you are going to pay less in fees (client can pick larger inputs, and smaller inputs become older reducing required fees).

Ah, I missed the part where you said you were currently running ver 0.6.3 beta.

I don't think the "Console" window was added until 0.7.1

There are still ways to get a list of unspent outputs, but it is a bit more difficult.

I am immensely grateful... but the only two things on my "help" menu are "about," and "about Bitcoin QT."

The fee that the wallet is requiring is dependent on the size of the transaction in kilobytes.  As you change the amount you are sending, you alter the number of inputs that are necessary to send that amount, and therefore the size (in bytes) of the transaction.

The Bitcoin-Qt wallet does a really poor job of creating a transaction that will allow you to send your full balance in a single transaction, especially when your wallet consists of a huge number of miniscule "dust" outputs.

I could probably calculate a transaction for you that would optimize the fee while allowing you to send the entire remaining amount (or the vast majority of it), but to do so I'd need a list of all the unspent outputs in your wallet.

You can generate a list of unspent outputs if you enter the following into the "Console" (found in the "Debug Window" of the "Help" menu).

Hello Everyone,

I'm having a weird problem with bitcoin fees.

I am attempting to transfer a balance of .40132441 from one of my early wallets (original bitcoin client, ver 0.6.3 beta) to another (I'm consolidating before upgrading... unless that's a bad idea?).

Being a proper cheapskate (my parents grew up during the great depression... if you don't know what that means, you're lucky), I first attempted to send the transaction for free.  Predictably, no soap.

I then went back into wallet settings and reset the fee to the lowest auto-generated amount of .001 bitcoin, adjusted the send amount to match, and tried again... and then the fun began.

This time a little screen popped up saying that "This transaction exceeds your balance when the fee of .00125 bitcoins is included."  So I went back and changed the send amount again to accommodate the extra .00125 bitcoins... and this time, the little screen demanded .0025 bitcoins, or twice the original fee!

This pattern continued with ever-increasing fees demanded until it had reached .025 bitcoins, twenty times the original fee, when the only different screen appeared, saying "This transaction is too large.  You can still send it by adding a fee of .0095 bitcoins."  Anyone who is perplexed by the question of why the software would demand .0095 bitcoins when the offered fee was already more tyhan two-and-a-half times as much... congratulations!  You're now almost as confused as I am!

After that single blip, the messages resumed their previous pattern of larger and larger fees requested, until I called a halt at .2378 bitcoins, which is over $40 by this morning's fix, and over half the balance of the ruddy wallet!

I then went and discovered that my original username ("TheVoiceofLiberty," if anyone remembers me) has somehow wandered off into cyberspace over the last six months, so I'm back to the newbie forum with my right name.

The operating system is Microcrap Windblows XT, build 3 (Yes, I know, and I'm already using ubuntu on the eventual destination machine, but these two old POS's would probably break down and cry if I attempted to upgrade them!).

Any ideas, anyone?

Thanks in advance