As the world’s first blockchain network, Bitcoin established the transaction fee standard that is still used by numerous cryptocurrencies today. Satoshi Nakamoto recognised that transaction fees may shield the network from large-scale spam attacks.
Transaction fees are paid to Bitcoin miners as part of the process of verifying transactions for a new block. The memory pool refers to the collection of unconfirmed transactions (or mempool). Miners naturally prioritise transactions with higher fees, which users agree to pay when transferring BTC to another bitcoin wallet.
Malicious actors that want to slow down the network must therefore pay a price for each transaction. Miners likely ignore their transactions if they set the fee too low. They pay a considerable economic expense if they place them at an appropriate level. As a result, transaction fees serve as a basic but efficient spam filter.
