Payment for commissions on the bitcoin network is almost at a minimum, as demonstrated by the mempool. In the last few hours, several confirmed blocks on the network have included transactions from users who paid 1 sat/vB, which at the time of writing is equivalent to an average of $0.14. Due to low fees, transactions stuck in mempools for several months were recently confirmed and propagated to the network.
In the last 14 hours, There were more than 10 blocks with at least one transaction of 1 sats/vB. For example, at block height 868930 and 868925according to the mempool. The total fees paid for transactions included in these blocks were 0.016 BTC ($1,091) and 0.024 BTC ($1,633), respectively. These amounts go to the miner who successfully processed the block, along with the 3,125 BTC subsidy.
As user demand for block space increases, they tend to pay more sats per virtual byte. This increase in demand is cyclical, happening several times per day. The above causes the total paid in fees per block to also increase, so there are blocks from the last few hours that have been paid to the miners about USD 7,000 dollars.
As the following chart demonstrates, bitcoin fees have been at low levels throughout 2024:
The commissions They declined even more starting in June of this year. The median rate used to be above a dollar; Currently, it is normal for a bitcoin transaction to pay for less than a dollar.
Old transactions stuck in Mempool
According to mononautical, a developer working for Mempool.spacethe current commission rates have not been seen for a long time. “Currently, the mempool contains around 160,000 unconfirmed transactions, enough to fill between 70 and 75 blocks,” commented the developer.
So much so that many bitcoin transactions that paid these 1 sats/vB rates languished in limbo for months. one of them He spent up to 10 months in the mempools, or transaction waiting areas. Orange Surf, a researcher from the same Bitcoin explorer, shows the specific case of a transaction sent on February 7 and confirmed on November 3.
Mining is not being a profitable business in 2024
As reported by CriptoNoticias, with the current subsidy per block after the halving (3,125 BTC), network commissions would have to increase 70% so that the cost of producing 1 bitcoin matches the cost of buying it directly on the market, according to Coinshares.
Also according to Coinshares, the cash cost of mining a bitcoin increased from USD 47,200 to USD 49,500 in the third quarter of the year. With the current price of bitcoin above $65,000, miners would be in profit. However, the actual costs of producing one bitcoin would amount to $96,100, if “depreciation and stock-based compensation” are taken into account.
This deficit, whereby producing a bitcoin is more expensive than buying it, has caused bitcoin mining companies, such as Marathon Digitalare not profitable at the level of gross income from their operations with bitcoin.
Not for nothing, Marathon Digital and companies like HIVE Blockchain have pivoted towards artificial intelligence “mining” to compensate for the low profitability of mining bitcoin.
The current low commissions paid to miners arouse different feelings in the community. For some users, current rates show that ordinals, NFTs on bitcoin, they are deadand failed in their objective of financing the miners’ operations. Another user, more radical, thinks that “rich people” paying transactions at 1 sats/vB is a symptom that Bitcoin is the one that “is dead”.
In any case, commission rates in bitcoin are cyclical, and vary rapidly, even on the same day. Despite the negative outlook for mining companies, this could change at any time. Especially if bitcoin continues to rise in price and mining becomes profitable again.
