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What Drives Bitcoin Fees? Using Segwit to Assess Bitcoin's Long-run Sustainability

Author

Listed:
  • Collin Brown
  • Jonathan Chiu
  • Thorsten V. Koeppl

Abstract

We use block level data from the Bitcoin blockchain to estimate the impact of congestion and the USD price on average fee rates. The introduction and adoption of the Segwit protocol allows us to identify an aggregate demand curve for bitcoin transactions. We nd that Segwit has reduced fee revenue by about 80%. Fee revenue could be maximized at a blocksize of about 0.6 MB when Segwit adoption remains at 40%. At this blocksize, maximum fee revenue would be roughly 1/8 of the current block reward { or the equivalent of 1.6375 BTC as a reward in the long run given current prices and demand for Bitcoin.

Suggested Citation

  • Collin Brown & Jonathan Chiu & Thorsten V. Koeppl, 2019. "What Drives Bitcoin Fees? Using Segwit to Assess Bitcoin's Long-run Sustainability," Working Paper 1423, Economics Department, Queen's University.
    • Handle: RePEc:qed:wpaper:1423
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    File URL: https://www.econ.queensu.ca/sites/econ.queensu.ca/files/wpaper/qed_wp_1423.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jushan Bai & Pierre Perron, 2003. "Computation and analysis of multiple structural change models," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(1), pages 1-22.
    2. Andrews, Donald W K, 1991. "Heteroskedasticity and Autocorrelation Consistent Covariance Matrix Estimation," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 59(3), pages 817-858, May.
    3. Easley, David & O'Hara, Maureen & Basu, Soumya, 2019. "From mining to markets: The evolution of bitcoin transaction fees," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(1), pages 91-109.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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    Cited by:

    1. Edward Gotham, 2025. "When the numbers don’t add up: anomalies and inconsistencies in bitcoin prices and daily data," Journal of Economics and Finance, Springer;Academy of Economics and Finance, vol. 49(1), pages 248-282, March.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Bitcoin; Payment Systems; Fees; Congestion; Segwit Protocol;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E42 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Monetary Sytsems; Standards; Regimes; Government and the Monetary System
    • G2 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services

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