Without sounding like a broken record, the Bitcoin network fees are getting more ridiculous. Although this issue has been present for some time now, things are not improving. In fact, the average transaction fee is now well over $50. This is the highest it has been for quite some time. When and if this solution will be resolved, remains to be determined. Right now, it seems unlikely anything will change soon.
Using Bitcoin is expensive beyond belief. It is not what Satoshi Nakamoto envisioned originally, that much is rather evident. In fact, the goal was to make Bitcoin scale and accommodate more transactions over time. So far, that hasn’t happened. This is mainly due to companies struggling to integrate Segregated witness support. In some cases, they are purposely delaying this development as well. Something will have to give before the average transaction fee surpasses $100.
Average Transaction fee Keeps Rising
Although most people stopped caring about these high fees, it’s still an important issue. After all, if the average transaction fee keeps rising, things will get out of hand very quickly. Right now, it’s far too expensive to use Bitcoin as a payment method. Nor is it a suitable way to combat high remittance fees. Bitcoin has become too expensive for its own good and people grow tired of it. Unfortunately, paying this average transaction fee is the only solution right now.
Surprisingly, none of this is affecting the number of transactions. With nearly 350,000 processed in the past 24 hours, things are still looking good. Moreover, nearly 11% of the total market cap was transacted in the past day. Those numbers are still positive despite the glaring issues Bitcoin brings to the table. It also seems the average transaction value is on the rise. This may be due to the average transaction fee mounting. Otherwise, it would make little sense for users to even spend BTC.
How all of this will pan out, is a big question. After all, it is evident this average transaction fee has to come down. Enforcing such a change will not be easy whatsoever. In fact, it may require some drastic changes no one is willing to pursue. All of this also makes Bitcoin Cash look far more superior. The next few days and weeks may very well be critical to Bitcoin’s survival in terms of being a “useful currency”. For now, things can easily go either way. It’s still a good store of value if you can stomach 30% dips overnight.