Although the number of waiting blocks decreased, the same did not happen with pending transactions. It is crucial to educate users about the use of Bitcoin at times like this.
Despite how congested the Bitcoin network is, transaction fees remain below 3,300 satoshis, equivalent to USD 1.
The Bitcoin mempool, the waiting room where transaction blocks wait to become part of the blockchain, became overcrowded in the past few days.
The miners of the Bitcoin network recently operated at full speed amid more than 50,000 Bitcoin transactions lined up. Although, the number of pending transactions increased by 16 %, the number of pending blocks went from 115 to under 100.
All that happened on the Bitcoin network, but the cost of transaction fees rose by only 3.3%. That has allowed paying with BTC to remain cheap compared to the costs of some centralized money transfer services and other cryptocurrency networks.
The fees for Bitcoin transactions range from 13 satoshis per byte (sat/vB) to 23 sat/vB. Computer scientist Murch says that transactions whose rates are equal to or greater than 14 sat/vB can receive confirmations in a few minutes. For that reason, making a payment with BTC can cost less than USD 1.
It is relevant to remember that a vB is the unit used for measuring the weight of a Bitcoin transaction. The adjustment of the fees for sending transactions depends on their importance and urgency, as miners first confirm the ones with the highest costs.
The Reason Why Fees Are Currently So Low
It is not the first time there has been congestion in the Bitcoin mempool due to pending transactions. The most recent case occurred between June and July 2021, when the dramatic drop in hash rate led to congestion on the network.
At that time, the mining power of Bitcoin declined after the Chinese government banned cryptocurrency mining. Between April and July 2021, the Bitcoin hash rate fell by 60%, and the cost of transaction fees averaged 80 sat/vB.
It took 2 hours and 19 minutes to mine a block, but the average should have been 10 minutes per block. The mempool accounted for more than 70,000 transactions waiting, 40% more than today.
One of the differences that have kept fees so low is the amount of hash rate. The mining power of Bitcoin fell to 82 EH/s in early July 2021, with the network difficulty at 19.93 T. The current difficulty adjustment is higher by just over 50%, but the Bitcoin hash rate is three times as powerful.
The fees for Bitcoin transactions have not skyrocketed, indicating that people are not overpaying to use BTC. Besides, wallets, exchanges, and websites have been introducing various tools to simplify the calculation and configuration of Bitcoin fees.
Bitcoin is trading at around USD 29,542 and has accumulated a 1.5% loss over the last 24 hours. Its daily trading volume is above USD 25.63 billion, and its market capitalization is about USD 563.37 billion, according to CoinGecko.
By Alexander Salazar
