When Do Bitcoin Blocks Justify Higher Transaction Fees?

Ever since the Bitcoin block size debate began many moons ago, there has been a lot of discussion as to whether or not bigger block sizes even matter. Some people fee the transaction fee is more important, and low fees seem to justify smaller blocks. But is it that simple, or is there more to this debate?

Blocks Vs. Fees – Which Matters In The End?

As the Bitcoin blocks get filled up with transactions, users would pay a higher fee to get transactions confirmed quicker. However, as long as the fees remain low, there seems no apparent need for a bigger block size. But predicting the current fee, as well as the block size, is not as easy as one might think.

At the same time, it is important to keep in mind the fee will not automatically increase if there is significant network congestions. A lot of people may wait until the “busy lines” are open again unless their transaction has to be sent right away. For the time being, the average Bitcoin transaction fee is US$0.05, which is still a lot lower than just about any other form of payment in existence today.

The major problem occurs when the fees start to multiply, and efforts such as the Lightning Network should prevent this from happening. A block increase through the Bitcoin Core client could alleviate a lot of the stress as well. A solution that would scale on-demand seems to be the best option moving forward, albeit it is much easier to say so than actually getting the code written and compiled.

One thing to keep in mind is how it is rather “cheap” to fill up Bitcoin network blocks with automated small transactions, whereas effectively gaming transaction fees is quite a challenge. In fact, it would not be economically viable to start floating the transaction price, as it would be rather expensive to do so.

Depending on which side of the fence one is on – pro-bigger blocks or not concerned about it – it is impossible to deny the transaction fee remains so small there no particular need to change anything just yet. However, we must also plan for the future, and take a spike in Bitcoin transactions into account so the network can scale, rather than face congestion.

Source; Reddit

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