Sending an on-chain transaction requires you to pay a network fee to bitcoin miners (not to Bottlepay). Bitcoin miners bundle valid transactions into blocks and add them to the blockchain, with a new block every 10 minutes on average. When you send an on-chain transaction it will initially go into the mempool before it is included in one of these blocks. How quickly this happens will depend on how high a fee you paid relative to other transactions in the mempool that are waiting to be included in upcoming blocks.
📖 tl;dr The higher the fee you pay for your transaction, the more likely it is to be confirmed on the blockchain sooner rather than later.
Choosing your speed and fee with Bottlepay
To send an on-chain payment, simply tap 'Send' on the home screen and then scan or paste in a valid on-chain bitcoin address.
Once you have entered the amount to send you can view different speed and fee options by tapping the 'speed: normal' button at the top of the screen. This will prompt you to select a transaction speed varying from slower to faster with lower or higher fees respectively.
If there's no rush then you can save some sats by choosing 'Slower'. 'Faster will cost more but will ensure your transaction gets through as quickly as possible. It probably goes without saying that 'Normal' is somewhere in the middle. 🤔
Pro tip: 🏌️For smaller payments, we recommend using lightning for speedy low cost transactions.
If the mempool is very congested, even faster transactions can sometimes wait for a while before they are confirmed. But don’t worry, Bottlepay have an automated process to bump the fees depending on the transaction speed/fee you choose. So even when the mempool is very busy, your transaction won’t just sit there forever.
Oh, and did we mention that fee bumping is on us? 😲
You're welcome.