People often claim that Bitcoin can send money anywhere free. This is not true, fees are needed for transactions. However, the fee is independent of the amount you want to send. The fee is the same if you send €10 or €10 Million. Usually, fees are from few cents to few euros.

Fees (charges) are not only with BTC transactions but all the other cryptocurrencies, e.g. Ethereum, Litecoin, 
Bitcoin-Cash, Bitcoin-Gold, Ripple and others. Each cryptocurrency has its own use, its own technology with parameters making different fees, but keeping it to a minimum.

Where does the Bitcoin fees go?

Maybe you thought that the bitcoin fees go directly into the company's pocket (e.g. Coinbase ) where you have the bitcoin wallet. The bitcoin fees are small sums in bitcoin that end up with miners for their services to confirm a transaction. The bitcoin miners are the ones who possess the equipment (hardware mining ASIC devices) for securing a transaction on the bitcoin network called blockchain. The fees are part of the miner reward for their services.

Why is the Bitcoin fee needed for the miners?

Bitcoin miners confirm and secure transactions constantly adding new block in blockchain. The miners use fees to put in a series of priority trade and decide which will confirm first. Choosing to pay a high fee increases your chances of the transaction to be executed in a very short time. Opting for a very low fee isof no danger to your transaction but may be executed after a few days, weeks or even canceled after long waits by the network. 

Understanding blockchain

Bitcoin, like all cryptocurrencies are based on Blockchain technology. Blockchain is a great innovation where Bitcoin is based on.​ Each block consists of transactions that has been gathered and expects to be confirmed. Once a block is confirmed by the miners, the transactions can no longer be denied. This is something complex, but we will try to describe it briefly.
​The blockchain contains the history of all transactions that have taken place so far in a public registry. Senders and recipients are only identifies by their 34 alphanumeric address, thus the anonimity. Each block after the miners verifed them will be in the blockchain and therefore all transactions are irreversible and is not under anybody's influence.

Why the fees are so high sometimes?

The fees in this period is particularly high based on the increased volume and the relatively small capacity of the block based on the bitcoin network specifications. Each block has a specific size. Once the number of transactions (fee priority basis) reach the limit of the block, it closes and is led to the confirmation of Miners, then the next block opens for new transactions and the process repeated. The time for each block to be confirmed is approximately 10 minutes. With more and more people now sending transactions from every corner of the globe, the costs ( fees that is) to find your transaction in the next block, it is very high or is this not necessary?
The size of the block is the current problem in cryptocurrencies now, this isthe main reason why bitcoin-cash was created. To help you visualize, the bitcoin block 2mb in size while the bitcoin-cash is 8mb.

How to find the ideal Bitcoin fees for each transaction

This is quite complicated with mostly having more guess than predicting the fees of your transaction. Most electronic wallets by default add more fees than normal just to get your transaction confirmed in the next block. If you want to take control and avoid extra fees, there is a way of finding a sweet spot between speed and cost. What are the minimum fees you need to pay to enter the next block? Is it worth to enter 3-4 blocks later? what is the cost difference?

Here is how to calculate:
Ακολουθήστε μας στο youtube:
After you press the  bitcoin fees in real time button, you will see at the bottom of the page the minimum fee you need to pay to run your transaction without delay and without high cost. There are two ways that you are usually asked to manually enter the fees. The first number refers to satoshis per byte, while the second refers to the total fee you have to pay for the transaction. 

If you find the information on our site useful and more people can benefit from them, we would be glad to receive comments from you.
It is important for us to continue our services for free and without ads with donations. Thank you for reading, if you have some personal experiences you would like to share, please send a comment below. You can also  email  us if you would like to include it in our presentation.