Please consolidate your UTXOs \ stacker news ~bitcoin

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723 sats \ 17 comments \ @ken 22 Aug bitcoin

The total amount of bitcoin isn't the only scarcity in this system - block space needs to be considered as well. I'm concerned that fees could suddenly rise to such a level that many UTXOs become effectively frozen, where the fee to move the UTXO is greater than its value. Look at the growth of UTXOs on the bitcoin blockchain. It's beautiful, it's wonderful, but it's also frightening at the same time. How many UTXOs can move in a single block? If every UTXO wanted to move just once, how many blocks would it take?

I'm not looking to spread fear. The scarcity of block space is part of bitcoin's core design. I just don't want stackers to underestimate future fees.

Have a nice day!

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31 sats \ 0 replies \ @moonbootspleb 22 Aug freebie

Fortunately my brother got me to consolidate long ago.

64 sats \ 0 replies \ @oomahq 22 Aug

It's not beautiful nor wonderful.

Up until early 2023 the UTXO set was less than 5 GB, and that took 14 years.

Now it's pushing 12 GB, and these 7 GB of growth in the last 20 months are mostly unspendable dust outputs from inscription spam.

Basically running a node got noticeably more costly for no good reason (mind you, the UTXO set is unprunable and nodes try to keep it in RAM as much as possible).

269 sats \ 1 reply \ @OT 22 Aug

Don't consolidate UTXO'S unless they come from the same source. I used to think this was smart, and it does save you on fees. Its just that linking all your previous transactions together is not worth it IMO.

A better way is to use lightning by swapping each of those small UTXO's into a larger LN channel. Then swap out larger sized UTXO'S and refill.

For swaps you can use robosats, boltz or diamond hands. Some mobile LN wallets have swap functions in the wallet itself (phoenix or electrum).

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @kepford 22 Aug

This is the way!

23 sats \ 0 replies \ @j7hB75 22 Aug

Thanks for the reminder. It's often prudent to consolidate UTXOs when fees are low. However, depending on your privacy and threat model, you should take care when choosing UTXOs to consolidate in terms of privacy, e.g. consolidating UTXOs from like sources and not mixing KYC and non-KYC.

42 sats \ 3 replies \ @clr 22 Aug

Is there a way to know how many of those UTXOs are "real"/meaningful and how many are inscriptions, ordinals, runes and other useless garbage?

36 sats \ 2 replies \ @sirstackalot 23 Aug

Important question. I'm all for discarding the ordinals garbage from my local copy of the blockchain

21 sats \ 1 reply \ @krawall 24 Aug

Well we can't really, that's a shame... Anyway I'm quite OK with these ordinals tbh. They keep miners happy and make Bitcoin more scarce. And they are infrequent enough not to be a nuisance.

Even in high fee times (not count 2 days prior of course!) I'm quite happy to move 0.1BTC at almost any fee rate, unless it's heavily UTXO-laden.

For smaller amounts, use L2.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Bell_curve 24 Aug

what is the largest amount you sent via lightning?

I don't think it's possible to send more than 1 million sats

21 sats \ 3 replies \ @beorange 22 Aug

thanks, will look into it.

what has been your experience regarding consolidation (costs, privacy, etc)?

25 sats \ 2 replies \ @kruw 22 Aug

Wasabi Wallet allows you to consolidate your inputs privately in coinjoin transactions. You'll end up with a handful of small/medium/large sized anonymous coins.

42 sats \ 1 reply \ @ken OP 23 Aug

It seems that Wasabi doesn't support coinjoins anymore? https://blog.wasabiwallet.io/zksnacks-is-discontinuing-its-coinjoin-coordination-service-1st-of-june/

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @kruw 24 Aug

The software still supports coinjoins, you just have to select your own coordinator because the default provider discontinued service.

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @krawall 24 Aug

I dare to agree and disagree. While we can see the global UTXO numbers, we've seen a modest increase of UTXO on our side because we use lightning quite a bit more now.

Consolidation itself does require space on the blockchain and going overboard with consolidation helps exactly nobody.

So yeah, I think your advise is good but should be taken with some consideration in respect to usage of L2 solutions and keeping a "healthy" UTXO rate.

21 sats \ 1 reply \ @2a3dex5 23 Aug

Can someone please point me to a good guide for consolidating. I know I should have done this way way back before the dildo wizard started spamming the network.

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @teemupleb 26 Aug

Video guide by @BTCsessions

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @Silent_Hodler 23 Aug

This is exactly why I want to have a decent chunk of funds on LN for easy spending.

My UTXO's are ofc consolidated nicely and waiting patiently :D