Why do fees not show up as transaction outputs? Where do transaction fees go? How do miners receive fees?

More about transaction fees can be found in these chapters:
https://github.com/bitcoinbook/bitcoinbook/blob/f8b883dcd4e3d1b9adf40fed59b7e898fbd9241f/ch06.asciidoc
https://github.com/bitcoinbook/bitcoinbook/blob/df1828b7205a5950a16a3182cf9b15421ee70658/ch10.asciidoc

This question is from the December monthly subscriber session, which took place on December 15th 2018. If you want early-access to talks and a chance to participate in the monthly live Q&As with Andreas, become a patron: https://www.patreon.com/aantonop

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Andreas M. Antonopoulos is a technologist and serial entrepreneur who has become one of the most well-known and respected figures in bitcoin.

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He is the author of two books: “Mastering Bitcoin,” published by O’Reilly Media and considered the best technical guide to bitcoin; “The Internet of Money,” a book about why bitcoin matters.

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MASTERING BITCOIN, 2nd Edition: https://amzn.to/2xcdsY9

Translations of MASTERING BITCOIN: https://bitcoinbook.info/translations-of-mastering-bitcoin/

THE INTERNET OF MONEY, v1: https://amzn.to/2ykmXFs

THE INTERNET OF MONEY, v2: https://amzn.to/2IIG5BJ

Translations of THE INTERNET OF MONEY:
Spanish, ‘Internet del Dinero’ (v1) – https://amzn.to/2yoaTTq
French, ‘L’internet de l’argent’ (v1) – https://www.amazon.fr/Linternet-largent-Andreas-M-Antonopoulos/dp/2856083390
Russian, ‘Интернет денег’ (v1) – https://www.olbuss.ru/catalog/ekonomika-i-biznes/korporativnye-finansy-bankovskoe-delo/internet-deneg
Vietnamese, ‘Internet Của Tiền Tệ’ (v1) – https://alphabooks.vn/khi-tien-len-mang

MASTERING ETHEREUM (Q4): https://amzn.to/2xdxmlK

Music: “Unbounded” by Orfan (https://www.facebook.com/Orfan/)
Outro Graphics: Phneep (http://www.phneep.com/)
Outro Art: Rock Barcellos (http://www.rockincomics.com.br/)

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16 COMMENTS

  1. Would it be possible to implement a feature where a full node is selected randomly to receive a certain percentage of the fees? The goal being to encourage folks to run full nodes. How about LN nodes? And if so, would it contribute to the anti-fragility of bitcoin?

  2. fascinating stuff. Can you discuss how a mining pool then distributes this reward to it's pack of miner's. I assume it is a centralized process where miners trust the pool leader to do it fairly. I was wondering if there is a way to write a contract where it automatically pays out the block reward as a proportion of hash rate to all contributors without having to trust the entity running the mining pool. Thanks.

  3. Very good but you missed an opportunity. Unfortunately one of the biggest hurdles talking to people is their not understanding the purpose of the miner reward. It serves 2 purposes. 1) Distribute the bitcoins widely and 2) Secure the network. At the beginning of the experiment bitcoins were not worth much, so a large miner reward was justified. But if you subsidize something you tend to get more of it. The POW of the bitcoin network is incredible now because users are not paying it directly. Over time with the halvings, the free market will determine what the transactions fee's will be, and I bet it will be more than today. But that is not really a problem because of evolving second layer solutions.

  4. I remember attending a seminar with a Bitcoin / Blockchain expert from Deloitte who claimed that if your transaction is mined in a block that gets orphaned and does not help to produce the longest proof of work chain your fees are lost and you have to try to make the transaction again. When I called out on him he said that he is sure and that we should agree to disagree and discuss this after the event… He should have watched your video would have saved him an embarrassing moment 😛 I think it is fine if people who have bitcoin don't understand this but a consultant in that field should be a little better educated (:

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