Bitcoin Core default minimum relay fees decrease 90% as update rolls out

Bitcoin Core 29.1 cut the default minimum relay fee from 1 sat/vB to 0.1 sat/vB, making Bitcoin transactions significantly cheaper while keeping DoS protection.

Bitcoin’s core software lowered the default minimum relay fee for transactions, marking one of the most significant changes in years for economically moving funds across the network.

Bitcoin Core 29.1, released on Sept. 4, sets the default minimum relay fee rate to 100 satoshis per thousand virtual bytes (0.1 sats/vB), a 90% reduction from the previous default rate of 1 sat/vB. Users pay their fees in satoshis (the smallest unit of Bitcoin) multiplied by the size of their transaction.

While every individual node operator can change this setting, most are expected to stick with the default value. Nodes do not relay and mostly ignore transactions with fees lower than the value they set for the minimum relay fee rate.

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