What does the increase in commissions in the Bitcoin (BTC) network mean, is it a precursor of market growth or a weak digital currency?
In April, the average commissions for conducting transactions in the Bitcoin network rose again – and this is after they have stayed at a level slightly above $ 0.5 over the past six full months. Currently, according to Bitcoincharts, they average from 1 to 2 dollars, that is, at least doubled.
Why do commissions grow?
Analysts recall that a significant increase in this indicator, up to $ 50, happened in December 2017, amid a growing market. Now the market is not growing as it was then, but Bitcoin could regularly turn out to be above the level of 5.2 thousand dollars. In the cryptocurrency sphere, optimism prevails in general.
In addition to the fact that Bitcoin sets records on the number of transactions in the network, the growth of average commissions means that an increasing number of users prefer to pay more in order to receive confirmation of the transaction quickly.
However, bitcoin is not in a market vacuum. As the supporters of the fork of the Bitcoin Bitcoin Cash network pay attention, “the commission for transactions on Bitcoin is almost 1.2 thousand times higher than on the Bitcoin cache”, which is confirmed by the latest data.
Right now BTC transaction fees are nearly 1,200x More Bitcoin Cash #BCH
h / t @ Egon_01 pic.twitter.com/FlRuxbcHho
– Bitcoin (@Bitcoin) April 10, 2019
Meanwhile, in both cases, if we compare it with bank card commissions, transactions with cryptocurrencies are more attractive. So, as Joel Shacleton, vice president of Canadian Gold Investment Management, said: “Once at the Johannesburg airport, I needed US dollars, and I had a card on which Canadian dollars lay. As a result, in total, I paid commissions in the amount of $ 57 and still faced a spread at exchange rates of 3.5%. ”
In Johannesburg Airport. Need to take USD from my CAD bank account.
$ 15 ATM transaction fee to take out SA Rand ( @AmericanExpress does not direct CAD-USD in SA)
42 $ commission on 7,000 rand-USD
3.5% currency spread
Short the bankers, long $ Bitcoin @APompliano
– Joel Shackleton (@JoelShackleton) April 17, 2019
Thus, even if the competition in cryptocurrency is high, in general they prove to be more effective than the classical instruments of financial transactions.
Publication date 21.04.2019
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