# Bitcoin Security Budget: Fees vs Block Subsidy

> Bitcoin security budget per day: block subsidy against transaction fees, the fee share of miner revenue and how it changes by halving epoch, from every block.

Markdown copy of https://voltfincrypto.com/apps/bitcoin-security-budget-fees-vs-subsidy

**Question:** What share of Bitcoin miner revenue comes from transaction fees?

- Kind: Dashboard in Voltfin Vantage
- Topic: [Bitcoin](https://voltfincrypto.com/topics/bitcoin)
- Chains: Bitcoin
- Status: Planned. The data is not published yet, so this page states no figure; each figure will open its receipt when it is.

The share of Bitcoin miner revenue that comes from transaction fees is measured here day by day and by halving epoch, from every block's coinbase. Subsidy and fees together are Bitcoin's security budget: what the network pays miners for the hashrate that protects it.

The question matters because the subsidy halves about every four years and eventually ends, so in the long run fees must pay for security on their own. The dashboard shows the budget in BTC, in USD and as a share of the bitcoin in circulation, without forecasting it: each figure reads blocks already mined, pinned to their heights.

## Blueprint

### Budget

Subsidy, fees and the fee share over recent days.

- **Fee share, last 30 days** (%): Fees as a share of miner revenue over the last 30 days of blocks, as a ratio of sums.
- **Paid to miners, last day** (BTC): Subsidy plus fees paid to miners over the last complete UTC day.
- **Annual budget in USD** (USD): A year of miner revenue at the last 30 days' pace, valued at the latest oracle BTC/USD price.
- **Annual budget as share of supply** (%): A year of miner revenue at the last 30 days' pace, as a share of circulating supply.
- **Subsidy and fees by day** (BTC): Subsidy and fees per day over the selected period, stacked, with halving days marked.
- **Fee share by day** (%): The fee share per day over the selected period, with a 30-day ratio of sums drawn through it.

### Epochs

The fee share and the budget by halving epoch.

- **Fee share this epoch** (%): The fee share of the current halving epoch so far, as a ratio of sums over its blocks.
- **Fee share last epoch** (%): The fee share over the whole previous halving epoch, for comparison with the current one.
- **Fee share by epoch** (%): The fee share of each halving epoch since the first, as a ratio of sums over its blocks.
- **Every halving epoch**: Each halving epoch with its heights and dates, subsidy per block, total subsidy and fees paid, its fee share and its highest-fee days.

Filters: Period (Last 90 days, last year or since 2012).

## How it will be measured

- Subsidy and fees are read for each block from getblockstats (subsidy and totalfee) and summed by UTC day and by halving epoch.
- The fee share is fees divided by subsidy plus fees over the same blocks, computed as a ratio of sums rather than as an average of daily ratios.
- The budget in USD uses the Chainlink BTC/USD price on Ethereum at each day's last block; the budget as a share of supply divides a year of revenue at the current pace by circulating supply.
- Each figure is pinned to the last block of its window, with the height and hash.

## Data it needs

- `bitcoin_network_daily` (to build): Blocks, hashrate implied by difficulty, difficulty, fees, transaction counts, block weight and miner revenue (subsidy plus fees) per day.
- `chain_fees_daily` (to build): Fees paid per chain per day in the native token: base fee and priority fee percentiles, total fees, and the share burned where the chain burns fees.
- `native_prices_daily` (to build): Reference prices of major assets read from on-chain oracle feeds (Chainlink latestRoundData) at each day's last block, with each round's update time.
- `bitcoin_supply_daily` (to build): Bitcoin issued, supply by coin age band and by output script type (including coins whose public keys are already exposed), supply last moved long ago, and cost-basis measures.
- Source: getblockstats subsidy and totalfee for every block
- Source: Daily and per-epoch sums of subsidy and fees, kept as ratios of sums
- Source: Chainlink BTC/USD latestRoundData on Ethereum at day-end blocks
- Source: gettxoutsetinfo total_amount at the same blocks

## Questions

### What is Bitcoin's security budget?

The total paid to miners, block subsidy plus transaction fees, which funds the hashrate that makes attacks expensive. A larger budget pays for more hashrate, and an attacker would need to outspend it to rewrite recent blocks.

### What share of miner revenue comes from fees?

It varies with demand for block space. In quiet periods fees are a small part of revenue; during waves of demand, such as inscription booms or market rushes, they can briefly rival the subsidy. The dashboard shows the share by day and by epoch.

### What happens to Bitcoin's security when the subsidy ends?

Miners will be paid by fees alone. Whether fees will pay for enough hashrate is an open debate. This dashboard does not predict the outcome, but it shows how the fee share has actually moved, epoch by epoch, so the debate can rest on measured figures.

### What is the Bitcoin security budget problem?

The concern that each halving cuts the subsidy, and that if fees do not grow to replace it, the budget falls relative to the value it protects. Some expect fees to rise with use; others propose changes to the protocol. The dashboard reports the inputs to that argument, not a side of it.

## Glossary

- **Security budget**: What the network pays miners over a period, subsidy plus fees, which funds the hashrate that secures it.
- **Fee share**: Fees as a share of total miner revenue over the same blocks.
- **Halving epoch**: The run of blocks between two halvings, during which the subsidy per block stays the same.

## Related apps

- [Bitcoin Hashprice and Miner Revenue per Day](https://voltfincrypto.com/apps/bitcoin-miner-revenue-hashprice)
- [Bitcoin Halving Countdown and Block Reward](https://voltfincrypto.com/apps/bitcoin-halving-countdown)
- [Bitcoin Transaction Fees and Mempool Tracker](https://voltfincrypto.com/apps/bitcoin-fees-mempool-tracker)
- [Blockchain Revenue Rankings: Monthly League Table](https://voltfincrypto.com/apps/blockchain-revenue-rankings)
- [Bitcoin Hashrate and Mining Difficulty](https://voltfincrypto.com/apps/bitcoin-hashrate-difficulty)
- [How Many Bitcoin Are Left to Mine: Supply and Issuance](https://voltfincrypto.com/apps/bitcoin-supply-left-to-mine)

Build it in Voltfin Studio: https://app.voltfincrypto.com/signup?next=%2F