Bitcoin Transaction Fees Soar to $40, Sparking Debate and Push for L2 Solutions Amid Mempool Backlog

1 year ago
Bitcoin Transaction Fees Soar to $40, Sparking Debate and Push for L2 Solutions Amid Mempool Backlog

On Saturday, Dec. 16, 2023, Bitcoin’s transaction fees spike to a precocious of $40 per transaction astatine 1:48 p.m. Eastern Time. The leap successful onchain fees surpassed the precocious reached connected May 8, 2023, erstwhile the mean transportation outgo topped $31 per transfer.

Skyrocketing Bitcoin Fees Surpass $40

Bitcoin transaction fees are climbing and astatine the clip of writing, a high-priority transaction tapped $40 conscionable earlier 2 p.m. connected Saturday, Dec. 16. Miners person been raking successful the fees and an illustration of this is the information that artifact tallness 821,485 came with 7.314 BTC successful fees, which is implicit the size of the 6.25 BTC artifact subsidy. Presently, the hash price per petahash per 2nd (PH/s) is coasting on astatine $108 per PH/s per day.

The caller spike successful Bitcoin’s transaction fees to $40 each importantly surpasses the erstwhile 2023 grounds of $31 per transfer acceptable connected May 8. Data from mempool abstraction reveals that for high-priority transactions, individuals are spending 674 satoshis per virtual byte (sat/vB), portion for lower-priority ones, the outgo is astir 602 sat/vB oregon $35.78, arsenic observed connected Saturday afternoon.

Notably, immoderate transactions connected Saturday person adjacent exceeded $50 per transfer. Presently, determination are 8 unmined blocks, each brimming with high-priority transactions. Furthermore, 311 blocks are waiting to beryllium processed to code the backlog of 383,607 unconfirmed bitcoin (BTC) transactions successful the mempool.

These pending blocks, amounting to implicit 531 megabytes (MB) of artifact space, construe to an estimated clearance clip of conscionable implicit 2 days and 3 hours, considering the mean ten-minute artifact interval. The important emergence successful onchain BTC fees has ignited a flurry of comments and discussions crossed societal media, with galore observers weighing successful connected the situation.

“The mean Bitcoin transaction interest is present $50 with 300,000 transactions waiting to beryllium confirmed. This is beyond ridiculous and unusable,” Blockchair’s pb developer Nikita Zhavoronkov said. “Historically, this is the constituent erstwhile radical commencement moving distant to alternate blockchains en masse.”

Bitcoin Transaction Fees Soar to $40, Sparking Debate and Push for L2 Solutions Amid Mempool Backlog

Others were rather pleased with the precocious fees. “Remember each the [Ethereum] maxis who said Bitcoin had a information fund problem? It’s fixed,” Dan Held posted connected X. Others talked astir furniture 2 (L2) solutions and whether oregon not they could alleviate the issue.

“Bitcoin fees person crossed 600 sats/vB today. That’s a 600x summation successful 1 year,” Muneeb Ali, the co-creator of Stacks said. “And you are inactive debating if devs privation to physique connected Bitcoin, anon? Bitcoin L2s are becoming much captious each day.”

“Will beryllium large to spot the L2s blossom successful a higher interest environment,” Held responded to the Stacks executive’s X thread. “I deliberation the bitcoin fees are reaching a tipping constituent to marque this happen,” Ali replied.

What bash you deliberation astir the soaring Bitcoin web transaction fees? Share your thoughts and opinions astir this taxable successful the comments conception below.

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