I understand that there are more transactions and activity on the Bitcoin network than ever before, but transactions taking that amount of time is simply unacceptable.
The purpose of the transaction that I made today was to withdrawal money from a local Bitcoin ATM in my city, and the cash is not dispensed until the transaction receives one network confirmation. It has always been instantaneous except for the past 2 trips, the last one clearing after about 5 minutes and then today's. Luckily the operators of the ATM were able to send my transaction through before it received the first confirmation because the chances of an invalid transaction are so slim, and I had had contact with the operators many times in the past. All in all I was inside of the store containing the Bitcoin ATM for about 10 minutes before I reached out to the operators and my transaction was pushed through, but it could have been over a half hour if I had waited for the first confirmation.
The fee for sending my transaction was 3.64$ USD equivalent, but still took such a long time to confirm. These types of fees and transaction times make Bitcoin impractical for actual use in many cases, and limit the abilities that users have with Bitcoin. Luckily my transaction was for around $290 so a 3.64 USD fee is only around 1.3 percent of the total transaction, but at that level Bitcoin looses a lot of what has attracted users and businesses to Bitcoin in the first place. These levels of fees make micro-payments virtually impossible with Bitcoin, was one of its biggest and most practical use cases. These types of transaction times also make it very hard for businesses to rationalize accepting Bitcoin unless they utilize a third party that automatically changes the Bitcoin into cash.
These types of problems with the Bitcoin network have been causing me to loose some faith in the short term future of Bitcoin, because these types of network issues make Bitcoin very impractical to use as a means of sending and transferring value. Bitcoin may always be a good method of storing value, but unless something changes and soon its likely that Bitcoin's network issues will lead it to become much less relevant. I really do hope that the Bitcoin network is able to tackle the hurtles that it currently faces, because the network currently will become a major deterrent for investors and users of the network very soon.
Bitcoin's issues and problems will soon outweigh its advantage of being the first coin on market.
Bitcoin has always had an extremely sizable advantage over all of the other cryptocurrencies and projects based solely on the fact that Bitcoin laid the foundation for most of the projects to follow and it virtually created the current cryptocurrency market as we know it. While many projects are currently have a much different blockchain and network structure compared to Bitcoin, most of those projects at a minimum built on the ideas laid out with Bitcoin. Bitcoin has always has the most support and interest behind it, but lately it seems like individuals aren't looking as 'deep' as they should be. Bitcoins current transaction times and fees are undoubtedly going to cause greater issues as time goes on if nothing changes, and I believe it will begin to loose its dominance due to the technical aspects that are holding it back. Bitcoin has always been thought of as the leader in the space, but that may be changing before we know it.
Let's face it, these types of transaction fees are simply ludicrous. Not only does an individual have to likely pay fees in order to purchase Bitcoin, but every time they want to use it for a purchase or transfer it they are faced with a 3$ fee? That literally is probably more expensive than a credit card would be, and is a whole lot less convenient for the user. If people believe in Bitcoin and want to see it succeed they may still try to use Bitcoin for purchases of goods, but the only reason for them doing so would be because they have a desire to use Bitcoin, not because of its practicality.
The only reason that I am currently using Bitcoin at all is for the purpose of increasing my stake in my positions that don't trade on the USDT market, and to withdrawal some of my digital holdings into cash. Every since the run that we saw last weekend, I have been holding all of the Bitcoin that I had in USDT or Tether, and am glad that I did. I managed to sell the majority of my stake in Bitcoin at the 2400-2500 price level, and I have no current intentions in holding Bitcoins in the near future. While I am going to continue to keep a close eye on the market and price level of Bitcoin, it is unlikely that I will re-enter into a position until Bitcoin reaches what I would consider a more sustainable price level.
Quick Recommendation Of Bitcoin ATM Company
My experience with the Bitcoin ATM company under the official name of 'Black Frog Blockchain Ventures, LLC' was really excellent today and really made me happy knowing that there are very professional Bitcoin companies and service providers out there. I messaged them before I left for the ATM today to ensure that the machine had sufficient funds to fill my order, and I got a quick response saying the machine was fully stocked. Once I sent the Bitcoins to the address provided by the machine I was given a redemption code to enter after the transaction received a confirmation. The same thing happened on my last visit and I got a text within 5 minutes saying my transaction was confirmed and I was able to get my funds.
I waited around 10 minutes today, and after still not receiving a confirmation I sent a message to the company again, and they cleared my transaction within 2 minutes, even though no confirmations had been made. The representative has always been extremely helpful and kind, and they have numerous locations in the Eastern US, and you can check out their website and location list here if you would like. Please note that I have not been compensated in any way for the remarks about the company that I made, and am simply sharing my honest experience and feelings. I am not attempting to persuade you to use any company for any reason, just sharing that I believe Black From ATM's are a very convenient way to withdrawal your Bitcoins for cash.
I really hope that you enjoyed this post and urge you to feel free to leave any comments, input, questions, ect below! Thanks for reading!
It's true Bitcoin fees are now a real problem for Bitcoin transaction but Bitcoin is still one of the best store of value in the world today though some cryptocurrencies have begun to surpass it in the last months.
I agree that Bitcoin is still an excellent store of value, and has been the best and most profitable investment I have ever personally made. Bitcoin definitely still holds the most notoriety and general interest of all cryptocurrencies, but it wouldn't surprise me if that changes over the following years. Thanks for your input and reading!
Bitcoin is technologically stagnant and has serious governance issues. It is probably a matter of weeks for Ethereum to surpass the market cap of Bitcoin. Gradually Ethereum will replace Bitcoin as the dominant cryptocurrency for payments.
There was a 12-hour backlog on ETH today, so I don't see it being any more usable as a currency than BTC. And it's not even intended as a currency, just as fuel for ETH blockchain dapps. Maybe segwit will help BTC perform as a common currency, maybe not.
In the future, most micropayments will be probably made by another altcoin we've not seen yet, while BTC will be the gold people keep in a safe for retirement. Right now we're in the wild west where people still trade in gold coins, but mass adoption could reveal how cumbersome that is.
Waiting for confirmation on SELL transactions is a common nuisance with all two-way bitcoin ATMs up until now. Only GENERAL BYTES ATMs (for pictures see: www.generalbytes.com ) support zero confirmation withdrawal. For the end-user this means in 99% of the cases an instant cash-out when selling BTC. Currently the platform supports buy transactions for BTC, LTC, ETH, XMR, DASH, DOGE and many more. Sell transactions are more complicated, for now it's limited to a few coins besides BTC. You can add your own coins here: https://github.com/GENERALBYTESCOM/ Personally I think it would be nice to add some STEEM to the mix. :)
I sent 4 transactions today. They all cost less than 16.4 $. 1 transactions 4.1$
hey took 0/6 blocks. I was not in a rush, just moving money to cold storage.