Update TX fee to 0.0005 BTC #218

Separate TX fee logic from CENT constant, and decrease it to 0.0005 BTC.

Looks cool and it seems the consensus is/was that this is a good idea.

maybe separating the minimum txout value from the CENT constant would be a good idea as well?

another suggestion: maybe to be more descriptive, TX_FEE should be called MIN_TX_FEE?

Looks OK to pull to me, if you can get somebody else to sanity test and bless then I say pull it.

looks good, compiles and runs; ACK

TX fee to 0.0005 BTC fee = 3 €cent for a simple transfer.

my commercial bank is cheaper than that. 0.0005 btc is far to expensive. 0.3 €cent might be OK

This is about the smallest payments permited before triggering required fees, not the amount of the fees... and it is a reduction from 0.01.

@mai77 : does your commercial bank really let you send money anywhere in the world for less than 3 €cent ?

If the fee is too high, which it is, bitcoin cannot be a micro payment system anymore. The fee should just disincentivize spammers. @Gavin: I get SEPA for free, even the mTAN SMS is on the bank. If btc exchange rate is rising further, 0.0005 btc is too dear.

Bitcoin was never a micro-payment system to begin with.

But you realize how tremendously important the fee is. In terms of product policy it is "make or break" for a potential future micro payment capability.

Does mai77 have a point? I would be interested to hear reasons for not reducing it further.

The transaction fee needs to float; changing it arbitrarily every six months is not the right way to handle it.

As an interim stopgap solution, the anti-DoS fees could be updated by signed broadcast message. It's conceptually the same as having the fees be set by the software but means fees can be updated outside the release cycle and you don't get failed relays due to version skew.

(yes yes, centralization, I know, but it's no worse than the current setup and can be implemented in one or two patches)

I see 3 options, -Set it in the code and update with every release. -Have it broadcast via central control. -Set it via user input.

For obvious reasons only one option is in keeping with 'no central control'.

Simple idea.

Two text boxs on the main interface of the client. -One for the current price in USD of one BTC. -The other for the fee in USD. Example 1 penny.

Use that to calculate the fee in BTC.

At the same time you can use that to set the transaction relay values. In this way the entire set of values are controlled by the users. This is the only way to keep it decentralized and in the users control.

One additional thing i would add though, have the client include the users currently set fee when connecting to other clients as well as a list of fees for the clients its connected to. this way the client can give the user a rough idea of whether the fee they have set will be relayed in the network. Ex i am connected to 10 peers that are connected to 10 other peers. in total id have a list of 110 user set fees that would allow the client to tell the user his transaction will be relayed by 60%~ of the network Etc.

Im not sure you could possibly have any better solution then this.

If you have a service to convert a USD value to a number of bitcoins, you have a central control.

On 15 April 2013 12:21, Eeri notifications@github.com wrote:

I see 3 options, -Set it in the code and update with every release. -Have it broadcast via central control. -Set it via user input.

For obvious reasons only one option is in keeping with 'no central control'.

Simple idea.

Two text boxs on the main interface of the client. -One for the current price in USD of one BTC. -The other for the fee in USD. Example 1 penny.

Use that to calculate the fee in BTC.

At the same time you can use that to set the transaction relay values. In this way the entire set of values are controlled by the users. This is the only way to keep it decentralized and in the users control.

One additional thing i would add though, have the client include the users currently set fee when connecting to other clients as well as a list of fees for the clients its connected to. this way the client can give the user a rough idea of whether the fee they have set will be relayed in the network. Ex i am connected to 10 peers that are connected to 10 other peers. in total id have a list of 110 user set fees that would allow the client to tell the user his transaction will be relayed by 60%~ of the network Etc.

Im not sure you could possibly have any better solution then this.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/pull/218#issuecomment-16364629 .

im talking about user input, not about a 'service' that pipes data into the client behind the scenes.