Bitcoin Core developers recognized improved efficiency in block reconstructions this week after widespread changes on the network allowed transactions with much lower fees. The shift began in August when nodes and miners started relaying and accepting transactions with fees as low as 0.1 satoshi per virtual byte, a significant cut from the previous norm of 1 satoshi per virtual byte.

In recent months, miners have processed transactions with fees down by 90%, with reported costs for standard transfers dropping from about $0.17 to under $0.02. Developers highlighted charts showing that over 80% of blocks were reconstructed successfully by nodes without requesting additional transaction data. They pointed to a reference node, called bob, as an example of these improved statistics following the change in policy.

Block reconstruction is the process where a Bitcoin node verifies and fills in any missing transaction data for a block proposal received in a compact form. After nodes began accepting lower-fee transactions, mempools—the collections of unconfirmed transactions held by nodes—became more synchronized across the network. This reduced the number of extra data requests required during block reconstruction. “A miner has broken ranks and elected to grab a few bucks extra from the sub-one sat/vByte transactions,” a mining pool operator noted after the changes.

Data from Blockchain.com shows that average fees per transaction are now at multi-year lows. The total value of transaction fees paid to miners, excluding block rewards, also continues to trend downward. The increase in successful compact block reconstructions has been widely recognized by Bitcoin Core developers as an operational improvement.

However, while core developers emphasized the technical gains, the drop in transaction fees has reduced income meant to support the Bitcoin network’s security over time. Some industry stakeholders see the reduction in fees as a concern for Bitcoin’s long-term incentive system for miners, which relies partially on these fees to protect the network as block rewards decrease.

The most recent policy adjustment, labeled “lower the default blockmintxfee,” continues to shape fee dynamics and operational efficiency across the network. The situation highlights a trade-off between improved network synchronization and the ongoing questions about sustaining miner incentives in the future.

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