Dynamic fees, announced by Blockchain.info, ensure faster Bitcoin transactions. Back in 2010, even Satoshi Nakamoto wrote that: “Free transactions would take longer to get into a block”.
Delays in transaction have been a matter of concern among the users of Bitcoin. These delays have been a result of congestion within the Bitcoin network.
Blockchain.info has announced the introduction of ‘Dynamic Fees’ on transactions within its wallet. It claims this will deliver fast and reliable transaction confirmation times for the best value, regardless of how many people are using the Bitcoin network.
Cointelegraph asked experts what ‘dynamic fees’ mean.
An idea born under pressure
CEO and Founder of EC District, Aleksandar Matanovic says:
“I see it as a reaction to the problem bitcoin network has been facing lately, with the number of transactions increasing and block size staying the same, causing the delay of some transactions. If the block size had been increased on time, they wouldn’t have to introduce the dynamic fee system, so it was a forced move. However, I see it as a good decision, sometimes good ideas are born under high pressure in seemingly desperate situations. They could have just increased the fee on every transaction. Instead, they have chosen to do it only when necessary in order to keep the user’s transactions fast and as cheap as possible at a given moment. I would love to see the others introduce dynamic fee system. Whatever the block size is, that approach is in my opinion superior to the fixed fee system.”
It was predicted by Satoshi
Blockchain researcher for Ribbit.me and a developer for Expanse, Christopher Franko says:
“A dynamic fee means you will pay a variable fee amount in order to be included into the next block, since higher fees have higher priority for inclusion. During congestion times fees will be higher than during low volume times. One could always pay more fees for an inclusion guarantee now it’s just going to be easier for the average Joe to pay "just enough" but not too much to be included.
I'm actually surprised they didn't do this sooner to be honest. Its great for blockchain users because they can rest assured knowing their transactions will be included into the chain swiftly. Other local clients like armory and I believe core does this already (I am an armory user). Because of the dynamic fees in armory I rarely wait a block or two before my transactions are included. Sometimes my fees are slightly higher than the average but I'm ok with that."
This is what Satoshi had to say about it in 2010:
"Currently, paying a fee is controlled manually with the paytxfee switch. It would be very easy to make the software automatically check the size of recent blocks to see if it should pay a fee. We're so far from reaching the threshold, we don't need that yet. It's a good idea to see how things go with controlling it manually first anyway. It's not a big deal if we reach the threshold. Free transactions would just take longer to get into a block."
– Satoshi Nakamoto (2010)
Dynamic fees are a developing system and its impact will surely be noticed within the industry with the passage of time.