It is evident the Bitcoin network as a whole is struggling right now. Despite plenty of hashpower, the mempool is growing beyond proportion, so to speak. Moreover, the network fees are exuberant. A lot of social media posts show pictures of users paying $20 in fees or more. This situation isn’t sustainable by any means, yet there is no solution in sight whatsoever. A very problematic development for the world’s leading cryptocurrency.
Anyone looking to use Bitcoin as a currency right now might as well not bother. Although most of us thoroughly enjoy what Bitcoin represents, using it is far too cumbersome. We see the number of unconfirmed transactions rise once again. This problem has persisted for several days and the situation only grows worse. Users are forced to include higher fees, butt hat can never be the solution to problems like these.
Bitcoin Fees Have Gotten Ridiculous
Reddit is filled with screenshots depicting exuberant fees. It is pretty easy to come by transactions costs of $20 or more. Some users even pay $50 or more. For a decentralized currency designed to replace banks, these costs are astonishingly high. In most cases, the fee is a fixed fee based on BTC value rather than its actual fiat currency price. For example, some wallets and exchanges maintain a 0.001 BTC fee at all times. That’s not a big problem when Bitcoin is at $100 but it grows problematic at the current price. After all, such a fee represents a cost of $16. Unacceptable in every possible way.
How this solution will be resolved, is the elephant in the room. No one has any real answer to this question right now. It is evident something will need to change right now. Sadly, we will be stuck in this situation for quite some time to come. Until the mempool clears out completely, network fees will only go up even further. With over 210,000 transactions pending, things aren’t looking all that great. Bitcoin isn’t capable of scaling as a currency, thus it shouldn’t be considered as such either.
With the current Bitcoin price rise, these issues only become more apparent. A higher price means the fees go up in fiat currency value as well. It is evident this situation cannot be sustained for much longer. How all of this will play out in the coming months, remains to be determined. It is evident no one wants to pay these high fees whatsoever. Unfortunately, we can’t resolve this matter with sheer willpower.
Header image courtesy of Shutterstock
