[GUEST ACCESS MODE: Data is scrambled or limited to provide examples. Make requests using your API key to unlock full data. Check https://lunarcrush.ai/auth for authentication information.]  Youth [@Web3__Youth](/creator/twitter/Web3__Youth) on x 4239 followers Created: 2025-07-14 14:10:27 UTC Bitcoin Miner Fees at an All-Time Low The chart shows the percentage of the total block reward that miners receive not from mining, but directly from users. That is, what is called network security budget, not a protocol subsidy. Does this pose a threat to network security? Are there other ways out of this crisis, and is it a crisis at all? To understand why this share jumps, one needs to recall how demand for block space has evolved at different times. 🔹2009–2014 The network was just forming, transactions were rare, and the block subsidy was XX and XX BTC. Fees were set manually. No one paid because no one competed. 🔹 2014–2017 The first delays appeared, the number of users grew, and competition for space in blocks began. By 2017, the situation had escalated: • debates around scalability • attempted SegWit2x fork • sharp increase in the number of transactions amid the ICO boom • trading activity during the bull run At that time, the block size was strictly limited to X MB, as SegWit had not yet been activated (its activation occurred only in August 2017). The mempool swelled, and fees soared to XX% of miners' total income. This was the first precedent when the network began to pay for its own security on its own: not from issuance, but from user demand for block space. 🔹 2019–2020 Fees begin to play an important role in miners' income again • Spring 2019 - growth from $XXXXX to $XXXXXX • Increased interest in Bitcoin as an asset, launch of Bakkt, anticipation of institutional arrivals • Approaching halving and halving of the block reward to XXXX BTC All this increased the load on the network and raised fees. 🔹 2020–2021 Another wave of speculative frenzy and again a filled mempool and high fees up to 20-30% of miners' total income. • Public companies announce BTC purchases: MicroStrategy, Tesla, PayPal, Grayscale, ETFs • Bitcoin reaches $XXXXXX • Millions of new users, mass BTC buying and speculation • Ban on BTC mining in China. Hashrate drops by almost half, and since blocks are generated slower, the queue for including transactions in a block grows. Even without an increase in the number of transactions, this led to an increase in fees. 🔹 2023-2024 Network congestion due to the appearance of Ordinals and BRC-20 standards, which led to spam and an increase in network fees. Fees jumped to the levels of 2017 and 2021, and on some days even exceeded the block reward. ❗️As an interim conclusion Even without drastic changes in consensus, Bitcoin can generate high demand for block space, which leads to an increase in fees and additional income for miners. Of course, many of these cases are specific and controversial, but the fact remains: If users have an incentive to get involved in the on-chain economy, fees rise not because of "inflation for security," but because the network becomes useful - even if that value is controversial. Bitcoin network fees are not a function of time, but a function of utility. There is no need to add infinite issuance or abandon PoW - it is enough to build sustainable demand for block space. 🤔 Now - the main question: How to create sustainable, predictable demand for block space without distorting the essence of the protocol and turning Bitcoin into a storage for useless data?  XX engagements  **Related Topics** [coins wallets](/topic/coins-wallets) [inflation](/topic/inflation) [decent](/topic/decent) [protocol](/topic/protocol) [budgeting](/topic/budgeting) [mining](/topic/mining) [alltime](/topic/alltime) [bitcoin mining](/topic/bitcoin-mining) [Post Link](https://x.com/Web3__Youth/status/1944761415010504817)
[GUEST ACCESS MODE: Data is scrambled or limited to provide examples. Make requests using your API key to unlock full data. Check https://lunarcrush.ai/auth for authentication information.]
Youth @Web3__Youth on x 4239 followers
Created: 2025-07-14 14:10:27 UTC
Bitcoin Miner Fees at an All-Time Low
The chart shows the percentage of the total block reward that miners receive not from mining, but directly from users. That is, what is called network security budget, not a protocol subsidy.
Does this pose a threat to network security? Are there other ways out of this crisis, and is it a crisis at all?
To understand why this share jumps, one needs to recall how demand for block space has evolved at different times.
🔹2009–2014
The network was just forming, transactions were rare, and the block subsidy was XX and XX BTC. Fees were set manually. No one paid because no one competed.
🔹 2014–2017
The first delays appeared, the number of users grew, and competition for space in blocks began.
By 2017, the situation had escalated:
• debates around scalability • attempted SegWit2x fork • sharp increase in the number of transactions amid the ICO boom • trading activity during the bull run
At that time, the block size was strictly limited to X MB, as SegWit had not yet been activated (its activation occurred only in August 2017).
The mempool swelled, and fees soared to XX% of miners' total income.
This was the first precedent when the network began to pay for its own security on its own: not from issuance, but from user demand for block space.
🔹 2019–2020
Fees begin to play an important role in miners' income again
• Spring 2019 - growth from $XXXXX to $XXXXXX • Increased interest in Bitcoin as an asset, launch of Bakkt, anticipation of institutional arrivals • Approaching halving and halving of the block reward to XXXX BTC
All this increased the load on the network and raised fees.
🔹 2020–2021
Another wave of speculative frenzy and again a filled mempool and high fees up to 20-30% of miners' total income.
• Public companies announce BTC purchases: MicroStrategy, Tesla, PayPal, Grayscale, ETFs • Bitcoin reaches $XXXXXX • Millions of new users, mass BTC buying and speculation • Ban on BTC mining in China. Hashrate drops by almost half, and since blocks are generated slower, the queue for including transactions in a block grows. Even without an increase in the number of transactions, this led to an increase in fees.
🔹 2023-2024
Network congestion due to the appearance of Ordinals and BRC-20 standards, which led to spam and an increase in network fees.
Fees jumped to the levels of 2017 and 2021, and on some days even exceeded the block reward.
❗️As an interim conclusion
Even without drastic changes in consensus, Bitcoin can generate high demand for block space, which leads to an increase in fees and additional income for miners.
Of course, many of these cases are specific and controversial, but the fact remains:
If users have an incentive to get involved in the on-chain economy, fees rise not because of "inflation for security," but because the network becomes useful - even if that value is controversial.
Bitcoin network fees are not a function of time, but a function of utility.
There is no need to add infinite issuance or abandon PoW - it is enough to build sustainable demand for block space.
🤔 Now - the main question:
How to create sustainable, predictable demand for block space without distorting the essence of the protocol and turning Bitcoin into a storage for useless data?
XX engagements
Related Topics coins wallets inflation decent protocol budgeting mining alltime bitcoin mining