# Gavin Andresen
# 2013-03-10 17:55:19
# https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=151329.msg1608008#msg1608008

Why did you pick 0.0005 BTC ?  That is a mostly arbitrary number. @p{par}

I estimate a current-worst-case "orphan cost" of an average 250-byte transaction is 0.00008 BTC. See @s{(link)} (more accurate analyses welcome, I don't pretend to have a monopoly on the "right" answer). @p{par}

That number will drop as CPUs get faster/cheaper, or bitcoin value rises. So you could argue that even though dust is not economical to spend today, in 20 years it will be. @p{par}

So I guess I'll rephrase my question again:  Rough, back-of-the-envelope: how much does it cost to keep a dust-like transaction output in the unspent outputs set for 20 years? @p{par}

If it is a lot, then we should set the "expected time when it will be economical to spend" to either "right now" or "very soon." @p{par}

If it is tiny, then we shouldn't worry so much about optimizing unspent txout size, and concentrate on other things. @p{par}

I have no idea what the answer is. @p{par}