Transaction fees on the bitcoin network peaked in the last nine months. If everyone on the bitcoin network had been using SegWit and batching, they would have saven $500 million.
Researchers at Veriphi analyzed data on fees paid on the bitcoin network since 2012 and concluded that users could save $500 million if everyone used SegWit and batching. The study was based on the work of Nic Carter and Hasu, carried out in 2018, but adapted to the current situation, and also applied the formula by David Harding, which helps to detect whether there are multiple transactions with matching input prevout for our Batching analysis.
As a result of the research, Veriphi analysts came to the following conclusions:
- From January 2012 to March 2020, 205,941.31 bitcoins were paid as transaction fees.
- Users could save 20,619.92 BTC if they used batching at full capacity.
- This 10.01% savings is worth ~ $185 million (based on the BTC price of $8,950).
- 35,067.61 BTC could be saved if SegWit were used instead of non-SegWit formats (since 2017, when the solution was deployed).
- These 35.48% savings are worth ~ $314 million at $8950.
- Currently, only about 45% of transactions are performed using SegWit.
Using the Blockstream's API Esplora, analysts looked at the input of each transaction and, if the input was not native to SegWit, calculated the block weight.
Veriphi notes that over the long term, transaction fees on the bitcoin network will only continue to rise, prompting more users to use solutions designed to execute transactions faster and cheaper.
