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One of the bigger stories last week how Andreas Antonopoulos received a lot of Bitcoin donations. After being publicly “shamed’ by Roger Ver, the community showed their goodwill. One thing that seemed to go by unnoticed is how the high Bitcoin fees play a big role in all of this as well. More specifically, one donation worth $1.5 carried a $13.46 transaction fee. Bitcoin becomes less and less suited as a currency every single week, to say the least.
Bitcoin has a lot of network issues these days. While the transaction delays are almost solved, the fee situation is still worrisome. The recent Andreas Antonopoulos donation spree only confirms as much. One particular donation had almost 10 times its original value in transaction fees. Such a development is absolutely unacceptable, to say the very least.
Bitcoin Fees are Bonkers
It also goes to show Bitcoin is less and less suited for actual payments. With these exuberant fees, the ecosystem is evolving in the wrong direction. Spending over $13 to send someone $1.5 is getting ridiculous. It could have been a $15 donation straight to Andreas, but the fees made that impossible. This situation has been problematic for some time now. It doesn’t appear as if a solution will be introduced in the near future either.
https://twitter.com/WolfOfBigBlocks/status/940223153967681536
Rest assured this particular transaction will get a lot of community attention. It is true a high fee was required to get transactions confirmed quicker. However, paying double digits in fees to spend a buck and a half is not acceptable whatsoever. Unfortunately, this situation will remain rather problematic for some time to come. It is evident such high costs will only become more apparent as time progresses.
Whether or not situations like these will force people to altcoins, remains to be seen. Litecoin, for example, has gotten a lot of attention lately. The network also has SegWit but far lower transaction fees to boot. It is evident Bitcoin could effectively achieve the same goal. Unfortunately, most service providers have not integrated SegWit capabilities as of yet. We can only hope to see that situation change in the future, but for now, it’s not happening whatsoever.
