<p>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.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-08-04T10:38:04.780Z
2014-08-04T10:38:04.780Z
David Schwartz
<p>Also you might consider that setting the precision of the currency below the minimum transaction level confers resistance to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salami_slicing" rel="nofollow">Salami Slicing</a> fraud attempts. (Also known as Penny Shaving, see linked article for more information).</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-08-04T13:17:20.930Z
2014-08-04T13:17:20.930Z
Boluc Papuccuoglu
<p>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.</p>

<p>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.</p>

<p>More info: <a href="https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/17830/whats-the-minimum-transaction-with-bitcoin">What&#39;s the minimum transaction with bitcoin?</a></p>

<p>Bitcoin transaction fee future:  </p>

<p><a href="https://bitcoinfoundation.org/2014/07/floating-fees-for-0-10/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://bitcoinfoundation.org/2014/07/floating-fees-for-0-10/</a></p>

<p>More discussion about Bitcoin and microtransactions: </p>

<p><a href="https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=397403.0" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=397403.0</a></p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-08-06T12:01:09.053Z
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
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-08-04T10:37:30.710Z
2014-08-04T10:37:30.710Z
2017-04-13T12:47:33.743Z
Mikko Ohtamaa
<p>So I have a <a href="https://blockchain.info/address/1Hy8LSovPiT3Z4qF7Hr2piJXZFHzpSBaEK">wallet</a> which has a balance of BTC 0.00005493.</p>

<p>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.</p>

<p>I know I can use a script called <a href="https://github.com/petertodd/dust-b-gone">Dust-B-Gone</a> to <em>destroy</em> 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?</p>

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

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-03-07T07:07:18.177Z
You can't move `10000`, but you can move `200,005` (note the 5 at the end). Without "so many digits" you would not be able to be so precise in your transactions.
Meglio
<transaction-fees><satoshi><dust>
Why does bitcoin have so many digits if I cannot move anything freely under 10000 satoshi?
gosuto
# Why does bitcoin have so many digits if I cannot move anything freely under 10000 satoshi?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2014-08-04)

So I have a [wallet](https://blockchain.info/address/1Hy8LSovPiT3Z4qF7Hr2piJXZFHzpSBaEK) 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](https://github.com/petertodd/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?

**Tags:** transaction-fees, satoshi, dust

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: You can't move `10000`, but you can move `200,005` (note the 5 at the end). Without "so many digits" you would not be able to be so precise in your transactions.  

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## 3 answers

### Answer by username_4 on 2014-08-04. Score: 16 | Accepted answer

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?](https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/17830/whats-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>

> **Comments:**
> **username_5**: 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.  

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### Answer by username_2 on 2014-08-04. Score: 12

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.


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### Answer by username_3 on 2014-08-04. Score: 1

Also you might consider that setting the precision of the currency below the minimum transaction level confers resistance to [Salami Slicing](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salami_slicing) fraud attempts. (Also known as Penny Shaving, see linked article for more information).


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