Gee, and I thought you were just being facetious. So you really think Peter R's explanation of how competition works to drive down prices is incorrect, and deserves ridiculed dismissal?
First of all, there is no perfect competition. Some businesses will always gain an edge. As happens over and over again, an oligarchy is eventually formed. If left unchecked, a cartel is then formed. Then the cartel can charge whatever price the market will bear.
Of course. Until some new entrant decides to compete, charging some lesser profit over cost of production, thereby amassing near-instant market share. The only way to prevent this is through imposition of some external force.
For some products and services, this price is quite high indeed. As can be seen from the current tx market with Bitcoin, the cost people are willing (albeit grudgingly) to expend on a transaction is quite high. Pennies is not going to be that price. It will be magnitudes of orders higher.
What you are witnessing in terms of the transaction cost is the effect of an artificial production quota - an instance of the canonical external force.