Quote from: DeathAndTaxes on November 20, 2013, 03:32:17 AM

You are taking things out of context.

Please show me a single user that
a) is using standard transactions

I can't show this, but that isn't the issue. Since you *can* spend unconfirmed outputs - and this was done with the stock Bitcoin daemon - , it doesn't matter if your transaction includes a fee if one of the ancestors did not. Every downstream transaction is delayed as a consequence. This actually happened to this transaction: https://blockchain.info/tx/35c4e8c86075cf3f5335e029abd2d981af011c142b56e04c0a6d8b0d588d32ae created by the stock Bitcoin Daemon with the 'Sendtoaddress' call. This ancestor transaction https://blockchain.info/tx/99e6c22980571d1733986d950f564854393777ba0905d08aae36d7f4f64e4a3a included no-fee and as a consequence because it was picked as an input the downstream transaction was delayed. Both were confirmed +300 minutes after being broadcast... 5 hours. The downstream transaction included a fee.

Quote from: DeathAndTaxes on November 20, 2013, 03:32:17 AM

b) paid the MINIMUM fee

Only... there is no minimum fee for some transactions - 0.0 is perfectly acceptable. My understanding of Transaction Fees is that they were probably conceived as a antidote to potential abuses of the transaction mechanism (spamming - you're less likely to attack something if it costs you money to do so). As for financial remuneration, the block reward was designed to suffice for miners until such time as it became inconsequential. Transaction fees were a bonus, but not the driver. Cherry picking is clearly happening and it's causing problems (Example: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=339871.0)

Quote from: DeathAndTaxes on November 20, 2013, 03:32:17 AM

c) didn't create a tx w/ unconfirmed inputs (which have to be confirmed before the tx can confirm)

Again, your citing some arcane knowledge of the inner workings of Bitcoin to make this happen. The stock Bitcoin client happily uses unconfirmed outputs to generate new transactions. These transactions *will not confirm* until the ancestors have.

Consider also the scenario where a business receives and sends Bitcoin funds (same way as PayPal merchants do). If the business's wallet software decides to use an unconfirmed output as input from a client who paid using a 0 fee transaction as part of a downstream transaction or chain of downstream transactions and that client subsequently double spent the original transaction with a fee - all the downstream transactions would be invalidated if the subsequent fee including transaction were prioritized. This could mean significant financial losses for the business not to mention the nightmare of tracing and unwinding of the now invalid transactions.

Quote from: DeathAndTaxes on November 20, 2013, 03:32:17 AM

The fee is currently 0.1 mBTC (~$0.05). While this is not free it is pretty much cheaper than any other payment system.
Credit Cards: $0.30 + 2%
PayPal: $0.30 + 3%
ACH: $0.25 to $0.50
Bank Wire: $10 to $25
International Bank Wire: $25 to $40
Check processing (business): $0.50 ea
etc

Do you really believe Amazon, Wallmart, Best Buy etc - some of the worlds largest retailers pay 0.30 USD per credit card transaction? The fact is in the last 72 hours Bitcoin on at least one exchange (BTC China) priced 1 Bitcoin at 1,100 USD. At this point, users on that exchange moving their Bitcoins and paying the minimum transaction fee were paying 0.11 USD per transfer. That is not cheap.

Quote from: DeathAndTaxes on November 20, 2013, 03:32:17 AM

Most users with tx "stuck" issues involve either
a) a free as in no fee at all

Which are perfectly permissible. The sudden 'requirement' for a fee even though it is not mandated by the protocol just to get even remotely reasonable confirmation time is ridiculous.

Quote from: DeathAndTaxes on November 20, 2013, 03:32:17 AM

b) giant bloated dust spam tx that miners are reluctant to include in blocks

Yes. 0.0001 BTC (currently) per 1KB.

Quote from: DeathAndTaxes on November 20, 2013, 03:32:17 AM

c) tx which have no fee issues like using unconfirmed outputs as inputs.

Which the stock Bitcoin Daemon happily permits and you are none the wiser until your transaction suddenly doesn't go through.