Why does bitcoin have so many digits if I cannot move anything freely under 10000 satoshi?

So I have a wallet which has a balance of BTC 0.00005493.

Even when trying to send these last bitcoin with a custom tx fee (1000 satoshi vs. the recommended 10000) Blockchain.info gives an error saying it is not possible to do so.

I know I can use a script called Dust-B-Gone to destroy these "small" amounts of bitcoin but I don't see the point. Why make bitcoins so divisible if anything under 10000 satoshi cannot even be moved around freely?

10000 satoshi is the current equivalent of a USD/EUR 5 cents coin! Are they not worth anything in cyberspace?

jorijnsmit

Posted 2014-08-04T09:59:30.620

Reputation: 682

Answers

My assumption is that the limitation is set by BlockChain.info itself, to protect the non-educated users for doing transactions which may take days to confirm.

However raw Bitcoin protocol supports transaction with any amount and any fee. But because transactions are confirmed by miners they might not have economical incentive to care about dust-like transactions and thus the transaction confirmation time might not make sense anymore for the person who does the transaction.

More info: What's the minimum transaction with bitcoin?

Bitcoin transaction fee future:

https://bitcoinfoundation.org/2014/07/floating-fees-for-0-10/

More discussion about Bitcoin and microtransactions:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=397403.0

Mikko Ohtamaa

Posted 2014-08-04T09:59:30.620

Reputation: 2 417

An important thing to add here is that currently, the mining fee is in the order of thousand satoshi, but that may change in the future. If Bitcoin raises in value, fees will lower and it will be possible to spend lower amounts. – Steven Roose – 2014-08-06T12:01:09.053

In the future, these small amounts of Bitcoins may be worth more. Right now, they're not worth the cost to transfer them. Bitcoin payments are a shared, public resource.

David Schwartz

Posted 2014-08-04T09:59:30.620

Reputation: 46 931

Also you might consider that setting the precision of the currency below the minimum transaction level confers resistance to Salami Slicing fraud attempts. (Also known as Penny Shaving, see linked article for more information).

Boluc Papuccuoglu

Posted 2014-08-04T09:59:30.620

Reputation: 111