Bitcoin downfall MT Gox shut down.

[Bonam]

But the whole system can work without these exchange sites.

The minimum transaction fee has nothing to do with the exchange sites.

[TimG]

No. A normal bitcoin transaction through the bitcoin client on your computer or through any online wallet (not exchange) has a transaction fee. It's closer to $0.06 at current prices not the $0.50-$1.00 that TimG mentioned, but it's there.

I slipped a decimal point - I should have said 0.05 to 0.10 USD.

[GostHacked]

You're wrong. If you try to place the transaction without the minimum recommended fee, it will take days to get processed, if ever.

The process would happen right away, the update to everyone else's blockchain is what will take time. There is no minimum transactions for bitcoin.

Banks operate this way. And money from one bank to another takes some time to process.

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Transaction_fees

Transaction fees may be included with any transfer of bitcoins from one address to another. At the moment, many transactions are typically processed in a way where no fee is expected at all, but for transactions which draw coins from many bitcoin addresses and therefore have a large data size, a small transaction fee is usually expected.

The transaction fee is processed by and received by the bitcoin miner. When a new bitcoin block is generated with a successful hash, the information for all of the transactions is included with the block and all transaction fees are collected by that user creating the block, who is free to assign those fees to himself.

You have the choice of applying a fee or not. It is not mandatory that you do, however it seems to speed up the process some. Which does not make sense to me at all.

[Bonam]

The process would happen right away, the update to everyone else's blockchain is what will take time. There is no minimum transactions for bitcoin...

Which does not make sense to me at all.

GH, you, unfortunately, just don't know what you're talking about. I don't understand how you can sit there making (incorrect) factual claims when you simply don't know. Hate to bring it up again, but this reminds me a bit of a certain time you kept making the same claim in a certain Isreal thread over and over as if you knew what you were talking about, while in fact being completely wrong. Sometimes the best course of action is simply to admit you're not sure, rather than pretending knowledge.

In practice, almost any transaction that does not include the minimum 0.1 mBTC fee will not get processed in a timely manner, if at all. There are a few exceptions, depending on the inputs/outputs of the transaction, if they are large enough or consist of bitcoins that have not been transacted for long enough, that it may get a high enough transaction priority to be processed free, but those are the exception rather than the rule.

Edited March 4, 2014 by Bonam

[GostHacked]

GH, you, unfortunately, just don't know what you're talking about. I don't understand how you can sit there making (incorrect) factual claims when you simply don't know.

In practice, almost any transaction that does not include the minimum 0.1 mBTC fee will not get processed in a timely manner, if at all. There are a few exceptions, depending on the inputs/outputs of the transaction, if they are large enough or consist of bitcoins that have not been transacted for long enough, that it may get a high enough transaction priority to be processed free, but those are the exception rather than the rule.

Maybe you can tell me who determines the fee?

[Bonam]

Maybe you can tell me who determines the fee?

In theory, every miner can set their own minimum transaction fee that they are willing to include in their blocks. As long as your transaction fee is high enough that a decent % of miners will include it, your transaction will get processed. Remember, miners have absolutely no incentive to include transactions with 0 fees in their blocks.

In practice, Gavin Andresen sets the fee. He is the lead developer of the bitcoin qt client and sets the minimum recommended fee in the client. He previously lowered the fee by a factor of 5 (from 0.0005 BTC to 0.0001 BTC), when with rising btc prices the old fee meant that BTC transactions were becoming expensive in USD terms.

Edited March 4, 2014 by Bonam

[GostHacked]

In theory, every miner can set their own minimum transaction fee that they are willing to include in their blocks.

So the fee is a optional, not mandatory. That was the point I was trying to make. You are not forced to apply a fee if you do not want to.

[Bonam]

So the fee is a optional, not mandatory. That was the point I was trying to make. You are not forced to apply a fee if you do not want to.

Sounds like you don't understand mining. Yes, you can offer your computing power (which has capital, upkeep, and electricity costs) to others for free. But why would you?

[GostHacked]

Sounds like you don't understand mining. Yes, you can offer your computing power (which has capital, upkeep, and electricity costs) to others for free. But why would you?

I understand the mining quite fine. The point in the last few posts was determining the transaction fee. Which is voluntary. That is a point I wanted to clear up.

[GostHacked]

Reports of bankers commiting suicide. Some from JP Morgan .. but this is the first I hear about Bitcoin CEOs offing themselves. If they really did off themselves.

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2014/03/05/bitcoin-firm-ceo-found-dead-in-suspected-suicide/

Ratke’s death brings the number of questionable financial sector deaths this year to eight. On Feb. 18 a 33-year-old JPMorgan finance pro leaped to his death the roof of the JPMorgan’s 30-story Hong Kong office tower.

Li Junjie’s suicide marked the third mysterious death of a JPMorgan banker. So far, there is no other known link between any of the deaths.

Gabriel Magee, 39, a vice president with the JPMorgan’s corporate and investment bank technology arm in the UK, also jumped to his death from the roof of the bank’s 33-story Canary Wharf tower in London on Jan. 28.

On Feb. 3, Ryan Henry Crane, 37, a JPM executive director who worked in New York, was found dead inside his Stamford, Conn., home