21 Inc, the developer of the first Bitcoin programmable device, has launched a free online service that estimates the fees and delay associated with a bitcoin transactions. When sending a bitcoin payment, the bigger the fee, the less time a user has to wait for the transaction to confirm.
The service, which is available at http://bitcoinfees.21.co, displays the fee in satoshis/byte. A satoshi is the smallest unit of measure in bitcoin.
“The fastest and cheapest transaction fee is currently 30 satoshis/byte, shown in green at the top.”
The calculator also shows the approximate delay in blocks and in minutes, “If transactions are predicted to have a delay between 1-3 blocks, there is a 90% chance that they will be confirmed within that range (around 10 to 30 minutes).”
The figures displayed are just estimates, a type of prediction that is formulated based on data gathered in the past three hours of blockchain activity. Statistics are also sourced from unconfirmed transactions. Monte Carlo simulations are used to derive the estimates for the wait times.
“From the simulations, it can be seen how fast transactions with different fees are likely to be included in the upcoming blocks. The predicted delay shown here is chosen to represent a 90% confidence interval.”
Developers who wish to make use of the data provided by the service can utilize the API provided by 21 Inc.
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