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Bitcoin Fees: How To Check When You’re Sending A Transaction (2020)
In this article, I’m going to address how to check what the bitcoin fees are for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Not many people think about the “fees” when sending their first bitcoin transaction, as it’s just so exhilarating that you can transact value without permission from a bank or other institution.
This is really a minute detail, however the fees for sending a bitcoin transaction back in 2017 was upwards of 75$ when it was at it’s peak. This means you need to be able to determine if the fees are a “fair” price at a moments notice and if it will significantly cost you to move your bitcoin.
Luckily, there are a few different resources you can use to check not only what the current bitcoin fees are, but also check out the fees for other cryptocurrencies and Ethereum as well. Additionally, you need to be able to determine what the cost structure is and if you can pay more for a priority transaction. Well, I’m here to break it all down for you. Let’s get started with the #1 resource I use on a regular basis to check the current fees for sending bitcoin in a transaction!
Before I jump down there, I wanted to provide you with a free resource for protecting your cryptocurrency and it’s a free e-book I recently wrote and you can obtain it for free on my website here at the top right corner in an orange button. “5 Best Ways To Secure Your Cryptocurrency” is available to download now! Go grab it!
HOW TO CHECK BITCOIN FEES ON BITCOINFEES.INFO
Bitcoinfees.info is one of the best resources to check real-time bitcoin fees and what amount of time you would need to wait for your transaction to be confirmed for that fee. For example, it will let you know what the estimated fee is if you want it confirmed in the next block (10 mins), within the next 3 blocks (30 mins), or next 6 blocks (60 mins).
As you wait longer the fees will go down, but not drastically. To provide a frame of reference, the current fees at the time of this writing is $2.17 USD fee for having my transaction in the next block and $0.78 cents in the next 6 blocks.
This varies and fluctuates and is determined by the demand in volume and what specific mining pools are charging and maintaining a competitive marketplace. Why are there fees if they receive a block reward already? Well, to put it frankly, because they can.
Bitcoin miners are the groups of people that use their hash power to ensure the transaction is not only confirmed, but that it’s also safe and secure. It is a necessary component for the network and ecosystem to flourish and maintain economic incentive.
This site also shows your daily, monthly, and yearly averages in the form of charts and graphs to show you how this progresses overtime. They also consider that the average bitcoin transaction is 250 satoshis per byte large for measuring these averages. This also includes the basis of the 1 MB blocks that the current block size represents and would not relate to the fees for the lightning network.
HOW TO CHECK BITCOIN FEES ON COINBASE
The fees charged by Coinbase are pretty low. But they can add up, especially if you use the service often. You will see the buying and selling fees we described above.
There may also be fixed and variable fees depending on the amount of the transaction. And when your purchases are smaller, there is a flat fee charged.
Here are the flat fees for the smaller transactions:
- If you are buying or selling in the amount of $10.99 or less, the fee is $0.99
- If you are buying or selling between $11 and 26.49, the fee is $1.49
- If you are buying or selling from $26.50 to $51.99, the fee is $1.99
- If you are buying or selling from $52 to $78.05, the fee is $2.99
This is a fairly low and tiered system, but as you can see, this fee is for Coinbase and does not include any miner fees or network fees. So please keep in mind that that you will need to add the two totals together in order to find out what you will actually be paying.
HOW TO CHECK ETHEREUM FEES
For ETH, I typically go to ETH Gas Station for this information as it’s the most real-time and accurate in my experience. When sending Ether in a transaction, it uses a component of fees known as “Gas”. What is gas? It’s essentially a fraction of Ethereum that is required to pay for the transaction and is typically much cheaper than bitcoin transaction fees. This also applies to ERC-20 tokens and security tokens as well as they are built on top of the Ethereum network.
This has several other tools to estimate transactions for a specific block and also if you want it applied to s specific smart contract on the network. It includes anything else you may need to know including what mining pools are currently verifying on the network, what the estimated wait time is to have your transaction included in a specific block, and also how full or empty these blocks are.
All in all, this is the only resource I need when trying to estimate how much I will be paying in fees and the only other resource I might use is the specific block explorer I would use in order to verify the status of my transaction. For those of you who do not know what a block explorer is, it is basically a way for you to check the status of your transaction and how many confirmations it’s received before it’s delivered to the recipient.
CONCLUSION
Overall, these are the most common resources you will use to check the transaction fees for bitcoin and Ethereum as these are the largest networks by volume and therefore, the most likely to be used when sending crypto. You can also check each individual blockchain if you want to determine what the fees are for, say “Monero” for example.
In the event I want to know what the estimated fees for that example would be to attempt a transaction when sending from my hot wallet, or I would simply use google and include the “coins name + transaction fees” to get the most accurate result. These examples hopefully clarify some of the questions that surround how much you will pay in fees at an given time on these popular coins and networks. Until next time…
What are your favorite resources to check crypto transaction fees? Sound off in the comments below!
Cheers,
The Crypto Renegade
NOTE: This post may contain affiliate links. This adds no cost to you but it helps me focus on giving as much value as possible in every single post by being compensated for recommending products that help people succeed.
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The [#1] EASIEST Way To BUY BITCOIN RIGHT NOW (2020)
In this article I am going to provide you with the easiest way to buy bitcoin and also one way I personally earn free bitcoin by doing something I was already doing. This is a game changer! Within the last 24 hours, the Treasury Secretary of the United States, Steve Mnuchin, has made an announcement on regulating cryptocurrency and mentioned Bitcoin and Libra specifically. The recent tweet that was sent out by president Trump has been a bullish sign for many people. Not because he said it was “based on thin air” but, because no standing president has ever mentioned “bitcoin” or “cryptocurrency” at all, ever.
This is bringing more mainstream awareness and people who are uneducated may take that as a sign that they should stay away from it, because Trump said so. Most people however, are taking this as a sign that they should buy some bitcoin, just in case.
No matter where you stand, the big question many people ask that are completely new to cryptocurrencies is “What Is The Easiest Way To Buy Bitcoin?“. Luckily for you, I am an expert in this field and I will provide you the TWO easiest, fastest, and simplest ways to obtain your first bitcoin or fraction of a bitcoin. As an added bonus, I will provide you at the end of the article with a free tool that will allow you to EARN FREE BITCOIN, by doing something you are already doing every single day. This is a “YUUUUGGGGEEE” (as Trump would say) bonus, as there are very few legitimate ways to obtain bitcoin for free.
Let’s get right to it!
#1 Cash App
This is a free app (you may have already heard of) that is similar to Venmo. It’s designed for sending and receiving money easily between users and can connect your debit card, credit card, or bank account to facilitate these transactions. It’s super easy to use and I use it to pay people for splitting dinner tabs and splitting costs on various things and works flawlessly. Unlike Venmo, they have also setup a way to buy bitcoin directly through the app, and you can even set up a purchasing schedule if you so choose, but this is BY FAR the easiest way to buy it once you set up the app.
The steps are extremely easy to do this:
1.) Download the Cash App HERE. When you use this link, we both get $5 for free. Pretty Neat.
2.) Create your account and add either your debit card, credit card, or link your bank details if you’re so inclined.
3.) Click the Profile Icon in the upper left hand corner and scroll down and click on “Bitcoin”
4.) Click “Buy” (you can also sell at any time you want as well)
5.) Type in the dollar amount you want to buy and click “Confirm”
6.) You’re done! Your bitcoin will show up in your account within a few minutes. So simple.
How To Buy Bitcoin With Credit Card
#2 CoinMama
This is a tried and true method I’ve used to buy bitcoin for both personal reasons and business reasons, with great success. This is one of the highest rated companies that you can buy bitcoin with a debit card or credit card with no limit. Now, in order to use a credit card there are some additional fees (not unlike Coinbase), but it will process and give you access to your coins in less than an hour instead of days. This is a good method if you want to buy them quickly and easily and do not want to use cash app or any other services.
This is the most trusted provider and the reviews are excellent. When I was originally looking for how to buy my first bitcoin, this was one of several options that came up, and back then, there were not many “trusted” options as there was many companies that did not have a good track record or many positive reviews, except this one.
This ultimately led me to use this service and not only was it quick and efficient, it was delivered within 20 minutes, and Coinbase was the only other option in the U.S. at the time and quoted a 10-day “verification” period just to activate an account. This didn’t even include the amount of time to let me buy my bitcoin, which would take another 3-7 business days. Not acceptable in my eyes.
If you want an easy and TRUSTED way to buy bitcoin with credit or debit card, then Coinmama is the way to go!
#3 Paxful
This is another service that is VERY interesting and is unlike CoinMama above in a few different ways. Although Paxful is a pretty well-known way you can purchase bitcoin with a credit card, the reason I am giving it a mention here is because of the other ways and payment methods you can use to obtain bitcoin (or other altcoins if you want). With Paxful, you can trade gift cards (Visa, Wal-Mart, Amazon, eBay, and Starbucks) just to name a few.
Additionally, you can also use Zelle (a money changing app similar to Venmo and other direct payment services that many banks use), SWIFT, MoneyGram, Alipay, WeChat Pay, and hundreds of other gift cards as well. It’s also worth mentioning that you can directy trade other altcoins in for bitcoin and vice-versa. So not only is it a fiat-to-crypto exchange, bult it can also be used as a crypto-to-crypto direct exchange (not unlike ShapeShift).
All this to say, it’s now become easier and easier with these services to BUY BITCOIN. Whether you trade you existing gift cards, other altcoins, or even CASH, it’s not easier than ever to get your hands on bitcoin. When I first tested this service, I received a $100 Amazon gift card for Christmas and I didn’t really want to use it for anything, so when I discovered I could trade it in for $100 worth of bitcoin, I was pretty excited to say the least. I will leave a list of all the hundreds of gift cards you can use to trade for crypto HERE.
I will have an in-depth review out for Paxful shortly. Stay Tuned!
Easiest Way To Buy Bitcoin – Conclusion
Overall, there are multiple ways to buy bitcoin (some easier than others) but the two main methods I’ve listed above are BY FAR the quickest and easiest ways to get it fast. The price is always fluctuating, so some people may be hesitant to buy right now in fear that it could go down in the future. Here’s the deal. In the grand scheme of things, hind-sight is 20/20 and over the next 3-5 years, I can almost guarantee that the price will be higher than the point is at right now, which is approx. $10,900 at the time of the writing.
This is one of the most important and unique inventions since the internet itself and will continue to bring forth different use cases and provide value to every single person on the planet. This is part of a much larger revolution where the people are now going to take back their financial power from the government and authorities, and there is NOTHING they can do to stop it.
That is powerful.
Bottom line, if you don’t currently have any bitcoin, you can start accumulating it in small amounts (as low as $10) at a time and it will start to grow very easily. You will be glad you did it when you look back, even in 6 months to a year from now. Mark my words!
What do you think? Are there easier ways to buy bitcoin right now? Let me know in the comments!
Cheers,
The Crypto Renegade
NOTE: This post may contain affiliate links. This adds no cost to you but it helps me focus on giving as much value as possible in every single post by being compensated for recommending products that help people succeed.
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How To Buy Gift Cards With Bitcoin (2020)
In this review, I will be going over the 3 best ways on how to buy gift cards with bitcoin in 2019. There are 3 trusted sites (and one app) that are used to buy gift cards very easily and it happens almost instantly. You can choose whether or not to email you the redemption code for the gift cards digitally via email, or you can choose to have them shipped as a physical card to your friends or family if you are going to use it as a gift.
It all is very easy, and more importantly, it proves that there is real world utility for bitcoin (in case you didn’t know that already). Let’s get right to the best ways to go about this below!
Before I get to these 3 options, I will recommend you first check out the LIFE INFO APP. This does the reverse and allows you to earn free bitcoin AND save money on thousands of merchants, just like the resources below. I HIGHLY recommend using this free app, because it’s a great way to start accumulating bitcoin for free while saving money on purchasing items you are already buying anyway. I will leave a link to the review that explains this free app HERE.
DOWNLOAD THE LIFE INFO APP TO START EARNING BITCOIN
How To Buy Gift Cards With Bitcoin
#1 GYFT.COM
This website offers a fully functioning website and a full service mobile app as well, but you can get pretty much any type of gift card you can think of. It’s essentially the Amazon of of buying gift cards and the selection is huge. It covers anything from pizza gift cards to department stores, like Macy’s to Best Buy to Cruises and Airlines.
This really is one of the largest sites that allows you to buy gift cards and isn’t fully dedicated to bitcoin. (we’ll get to that option below). You can actually buy these gift cards with any payment method, but bitcoin is an advertised method for doing so. I have used it once on this site and it’s fairly straight forward with scanning the QR code with my phone and authorizing with my BitPay wallet.
This probably has the largest selection of gift cards, but one thing I wish they did was incentivize the use of bitcoin by offering a discount for purchasing these gift cards, but for them it just appears to be another payment method.
If you want to save money and get discounted gift cards with bitcoin or bitcoin cash, I would recommend trying out Purse.io, which is Amazon built on top of a new platform that specifically deals in bitcoin payment. You can check out my review and recap in this article I wrote HERE.
#2 BITREFILL.COM
This is a site that I love using because it was built specifically to help propel bitcoin being used in commerce specifically. Not only that, you can buy gift cards with Bitcoin, but you can also use several other altcoins as well. You can also top up gift cards on your phone in any denomination you need and it offers over 750 different gift cards, so it has a VERY large selection, just like above.
You can also use Lightning Payments for ordering bitcoin as well. This is a new development, but one that is very welcome. I just downloaded my first wallet for the lightning network and it was really fun to see it in action! Granted, I haven’t tested it out on a purchase here, yet.
However, I plan to do that very soon on my next gift card purchase. I always try to support businesses that support bitcoin payments, but especially ones that were built on the promise of bitcoin being a peer-to-peer electronic cash system that was developed by the elusive Satoshi Nakamoto.
Overall, this is probably my favorite place to buy gift cards when I pay with bitcoin or any other altcoin, because of it’s dedication to this cause. I also had a smooth experience and had the physical cards shipped to me within 3 days and arrived on time and as described.
The one thing that also makes this different, is you can pay your phone bill and cable bill with bitcoin. How? Well, you can purchase a specific gift cards amount, say $94.36 if that’s your phone bill amount, and use that to pay your monthly Verizon, T-Mobile, AT&T, or Sprint Bill. Pretty neat.
Also, you can do this with your cable bill if you use Cox or Xfinity if you’re in the U.S. The same thing applies where you can purchase a gift card for an exact amount and use it when you go online to pay your bill. Pretty cool if you ask me!
#3 BITPAY WALLET APP
This is my number one go to mobile wallet because of it’s utility. I also have a visa card that I can load up my bitcoin on directly, so it’s all managed and very easy to use in the app. But, it also offers integrations with Coinbase and you can buy gift cards directly from your wallet there.
The only downside is, it supports only Bitcoin (BTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH). If you are using any other cryptocurrencies with your day to day spending, then I would go with something else, but I use this one every single day, because the user experience is top notch.
In terms of gift cards, here is an article the wrote when it was rolled out last December HERE. Ultimately, it doesn’t quite have the features or selection that the other two offer, but when you use this mobile wallet for the debit visa card and for other everyday spending, it makes it easier to manage it all in one place..
It covers some larger name retailers like: Uber, Delta Airlines, Hotels.com and Amazon. There are other options, and they are adding more all the time, so keep an eye on that. Overall, I personally use this option the most as I mentioned above I have a lot of services integrated with this wallet and I’ve never had a bad experience.
CONCLUSION
These are the easiest steps on how to buy gift cards with bitcoin! Overall, I have a clear favorite in the list above in terms of specifically buying gift cards and that is Bitrefill.com, but that does not mean the other options are bad. I have personally used all 3 of these and they all have a good user experience.
The difference lies in their business models and the personal branding and position in the marketplace. They are all reputable and I can recommend all of them, but I still have a soft spot for “Bitcoin Companies” in general, and that’s just an emotional leaning on my part.
If you ever need to see some previews of get some other commentary, watch the video I did above that goes over this and shows you how to go about this process. Give these a try when you have a holiday, birthday, or any other type of event when a gift card would be appropriate. you won’t regret it.
What do you think? Are there better ways to buy gift cards online? Let me know below in the comments!
Cheers,
The Crypto Renegade
NOTE: This post may contain affiliate links. This adds no cost to you but it helps me focus on giving as much value as possible in every single post by being compensated for recommending products that help people succeed.
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