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The market for bitcoin transactions

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  • Tsang, Kwok Ping
  • Yang, Zichao

Abstract

Transaction fees in the bitcoin system work differently from those in conventional payment systems due to the design of the bitcoin mining algorithm. In particular, transaction fees and transaction volume in the bitcoin system increase whenever the network is congested, and our VAR results confirm that is indeed the case. To account for the empirical findings, we build a model where users and miners together determine transaction fees and transaction volume. Even though the mechanism of fluctuating transaction fees in bitcoin introduces an extra cost of uncertainty to users, a back-of-envelope calculation shows that the cost of using the bitcoin network for transactions is still smaller than the cost of using the current conventional payment system with a fixed transaction fee rate. However, this calculation may underestimate the cost due to the crowding-out effect on small transactions during the congested period.

Suggested Citation

  • Tsang, Kwok Ping & Yang, Zichao, 2021. "The market for bitcoin transactions," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:intfin:v:71:y:2021:i:c:s1042443121000019
    DOI: 10.1016/j.intfin.2021.101282
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    Cited by:

    1. Yulin Liu & Yuxuan Lu & Kartik Nayak & Fan Zhang & Luyao Zhang & Yinhong Zhao, 2022. "Empirical Analysis of EIP-1559: Transaction Fees, Waiting Time, and Consensus Security," Papers 2201.05574, arXiv.org, revised Apr 2023.
    2. Cole, Benjamin M. & Dyhrberg, Anne H. & Foley, Sean & Svec, Jiri, 2022. "Can Bitcoin be Trusted? Quantifying the economic value of blockchain transactions," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    3. Rudkin, Simon & Rudkin, Wanling & Dłotko, Paweł, 2023. "On the topology of cryptocurrency markets," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    4. Leonardo Ieracitano Vieira & Márcio Poletti Laurini, 2023. "Time-varying higher moments in Bitcoin," Digital Finance, Springer, vol. 5(2), pages 231-260, June.
    5. Urquhart, Andrew, 2022. "Under the hood of the Ethereum blockchain," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 47(PA).
    6. Kim, Daehan & Ryu, Doojin & Webb, Robert I., 2023. "Determination of equilibrium transaction fees in the Bitcoin network: A rank-order contest," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    7. Yousaf, Imran & Goodell, John W., 2023. "Linkages between CBDC and cryptocurrency uncertainties, and digital payment stocks," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Bitcoin; Transaction fees; Congestion; Vector autoregression;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C51 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling - - - Model Construction and Estimation
    • E42 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Monetary Sytsems; Standards; Regimes; Government and the Monetary System
    • E47 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Forecasting and Simulation: Models and Applications
    • D6 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes

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