Cryptocurrency "dust" refers to a minuscule amount of coins or tokens that become virtually unspendable due to the transaction fee surpassing their value. This mainly affects UTXO-based coins like Bitcoin (BTC), where small amounts of UTXOs accrue over time, possibly restricting a segment of the balance from being spent.
Covered in this guide:
- Meaning of UTXO
- Why Dust Errors occur
- Handling Dust
- How to check UTXOs
Understanding UTXO:
UTXOs, or Unspent Transaction Outputs, are what form your balance with Bitcoin (BTC) and similar tokens. Your balance isn't a singular value but a sum of smaller values called UTXOs.
⚠️ On Screen Error message: Please consider decreasing the sending amount or topping up the balance
Deciphering Reason for Dust Errors:
Dust errors occur when a UTXO's value is less than the partial fee required to transfer it. If an account's entire balance comprises such UTXOs or "dust," no funds can be spent from it.
Managing Cryptocurrency Dust:
To avoid dust errors, refrain from making tiny transactions that incur high fees. If possible, use the ‘Max Amount’ option for transactions to exhaust non-dust UTXOs. If only dust UTXOs exist, consider reducing the transaction fee, but beware, this might slow down the transaction.
Next steps:
In light of the error code you're encountering, you have two potential courses of action:
1. Increase your Bitcoin balance to sufficiently cover the required transaction fee.
2. Wait until the network demand decreases, which typically leads to lower transaction fees.
Checking Your UTXOs:
While Trust Wallet doesn't display individual UTXOs, block explorers like blockchair.com do offer this insight.
To leverage the newest features for managing UTXOs and 'dust', ensure you’ve downloaded the latest version from: trustwallet.com/download
Learn more about how Trust Wallet addresses network congestion:
https://trustwallet.com/blog/addressing-blockchain-congestion