Bitcoin (BTC), the number one cryptocurrency by market capitalization has recorded its lowest transaction fees in the last 3 years. According to reports, the Bitcoin network recorded a three-year low fee of $0.025 as of January 1, 2019.
The crypto asset though it has suffered immensely due to the bear market in the last quarter of 2018 is still yet to fully recover from the crash but is showing this trend of reduced transaction fees which may serve as an incentive to encourage transactions using the asset.
Transaction fees are charged and used as an incentive for miners to keep the integrity of transactions on the network. High transactions fees have been one of the cases against the Bitcoin network which have made alternative cryptocurrencies such as XRP, LTC and other low-fee digital currencies more suitable for micropayments.
Bitcoin transaction fees had reached an all-time high of $34 as a median fee at the beginning of 2018 when the total number of daily transactions reached 308,000, a meager number compared to the millions of daily transactions recorded by networks such as Tron. Bitcoin’s daily transactions have reduced considerably to 234,000 per day with the reduction in transaction fees which now ranges from $0.025 to as low as $0.01 for Transaction confirmations of 10 Minutes to 1 hour.
Although Bitcoin is still suffering at the hands of the bears, this is certainly a good start in a new year for the asset as some merchants and crypto enthusiasts who have been put off by the hitherto high fees can now use Bitcoin for transactions, even those involving micropayments. This could increase adoption of the number one cryptocurrency thus bringing up the price to above $4000 and beyond.
Meanwhile, the year 2019 has been predicted to be the year of cryptocurrencies when digital currencies are expected to see mass adoption. In fact, Bitcoin saw the green today as it approached $3,900 which it has remained under almost all week. Ethereum (ETH) has been making steady progress though, reaching up to $160 from under $80 during last year’s crash.
Will the reduced transaction fees last or is it just for a short time and will it cause an immediate change in Bitcoin price or will it take some time? It will be nice to see Bitcoin become useful for micropayments since its fees have gotten significantly low. What do you think? Is Bitcoin likely to be used for transactions the way altcoins are used today if its fees remain low?
