In August, the blockchain was forced to split in two — a phenomenon known as "hard fork.

Relative economic advantage

Another fork occurred in October , spawning yet another digital asset called bitcoin gold. These bitcoin offshoots have spawned because some within the bitcoin community believe that the size of blocks — records of transactions on the network — should be increased.

A proposed update known as SegWit2x would have increased the block size from one to two megabytes, but this was dropped last month. The boss of blockchain firm Ripple, whose digital currency XRP is the fourth-largest by market value, is skeptical about the use of bitcoin for payments and transfers. Garlinghouse said that his firm's cryptocurrency was "enabling transactions in seconds," adding that the cost of transactions were "a fraction of pennie.

With unprecedented interest in bitcoin, experts have said that this is clogging up the blockchain network, with people resorting to other virtual currencies — known as altcoins — instead.

1. Bitcoin vs. Credit Card Transactions: What's the Difference?.
2. Cornell Chronicle.
3. sicher bitcoin wallet!
4. Bitcoin Avg. Transaction Fee historical chart?

A year ago low percentage of people would accept Ethereum but now a lot more would. Slow transaction times and big fees might now be a problem for bitcoin, but there may be a solution.

Yes, you can pay smaller fees and get away with it

But Radloff pointed to a potential solution to the issue known as the "Lightning Network. The Lightning Network would essentially allow users to send multiple transactions to and from outside of the blockchain.

It would work as a second layer on top of the existing distributed ledger network that underpins the digital currency. Skip Navigation.

Markets Pre-Markets U. Key Points. A debate has been brewing among the bitcoin community surrounding transaction speeds and fees. Bitcoin's price isn't the only thing soaring to colossal levels. Wirex Card. Making payments.

• Supply increase.
• Bitcoin Avg. Transaction Fee Chart.
• Bitcoin's Lightning Network: 3 Possible Problems.
• Option #2: Lightning to the rescue.

My accounts. Wirex X-tras. Why is the blockchain fee so high? In other words, you may need to pay higher blockchain fees if: the blockchain network is busy or loaded at the moment. Usually, the fee increases during sudden blockchain rate fluctuations and major world events; your crypto account has a history of microdeposits like referral bonuses. If your account has large amounts of small deposits, the size of your transaction will be bigger as it will consist of many inputs.

My blockchain fee is too high. Why? What should I do?

The bigger the transaction size, the higher the blockchain fee. There might be other causes of higher blockchain fees, but we've listed the most common ones.



Is there anything Wirex can do about that? What can I do to reduce the blockchain fee in the meantime? The general advice to reduce your blockchain fee would be: Consolidate your microdeposits in another third-party wallet, then send a larger amount to Wirex as one single transaction. That will help you reduce the blockchain fee for future exchanges and transfers.

If you are used to exchanging small amounts regularly, it might help to use larger amounts.

Bitcoin's Lightning Network: Three Possible Problems

Monitor the average blockchain fee in the network. If your transfer is not time-sensitive, you can wait until the average fee amount drops. You can check this on major cryptocurrency exchanges, block explorers or websites such as BitcoinFees.