Call for reconfiguration of nodes to relay transactions with fee-rates below 1 sat/vbyte

The default minimum relay transaction fee for Bitcoin nodes has been a constant at 1000/kvB, or 1 sat/vbyte, since the year 2013 or possibly even earlier. At that time, the cost of 1000 satoshis was approximately $0.01, but in today's market, it has increased significantly, by about a hundredfold. Given this substantial change in value, there's a growing consideration among some in the Bitcoin community to adjust node configurations to lower the barrier for transaction fees. A suggested adjustment is to set the minrelaytxfee to 0.00000001, which would effectively reduce the fee to 0.001 sat/vbyte. This adjustment can be made within the bitcoin.conf file of a node.

Currently, there are very few nodes that have adopted configurations to relay transactions at fee rates below 1 sat/vbyte. The proposal to adjust the minrelaytxfee seeks to facilitate the processing of transactions with lower fee rates on the Bitcoin network. Transactions that might benefit most from such an adjustment include those related to consolidation and multisig operations, which currently face challenges due to higher fee rates. The push towards lowering the minimum relay transaction fee is aimed at unblocking these types of transactions, thereby potentially improving the efficiency and accessibility of the Bitcoin network for various types of operations. This information is particularly relevant to members of the "Bitcoin Development Mailing List" group, as it directly impacts node operation and configuration practices within the Bitcoin ecosystem.