Steam stops accepting payments in bitcoins

[Deleted]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-42264622

Online game service Steam has stopped accepting payments made with the Bitcoin virtual currency.

In a statement, development studio Valve, which runs Steam, said "high fees and volatility" had driven it to stop accepting them.

It said that fees to process Bitcoin payments had "skyrocketed" in 2017, making the virtual currency much less attractive as an option.

It said it may re-evaluate Bitcoin as a payment possibility in the future.

Losing loop

In its statement, Valve said although Bitcoin had always been volatile, the rapid changes in value it had seen during the past few months had been "extreme".

Steam started accepting payments in bitcoins in April this year.

At that time, each Bitcoin was worth about $450 (£335). Now, each coin is worth about $14,800.

The moment-by-moment shifts in value were a problem, Valve said, because of the narrow window customers had to complete a purchase using bitcoins.

If a Bitcoin-based transaction was prolonged, the value of the coins being transferred could change "significantly", it said.

In these cases, customers had to transfer more bitcoins to make the payment, or get a refund. And either option would result in the customer paying more exchange fees, currently about $20.

Some customers adding bitcoins had even been caught out a second time as the value changed again.

"This year, we've seen increasing number of customers get into this state," Valve said.

Bitcoin continued to rise in value this week and looks set to break the $15,000 barrier soon.

Valve's decision comes as crypto-cash mining market NiceHash reported a "security breach" had meant hackers had accessed its Bitcoin wallet, which had contained about $60m in bitcoins.

What's your opinion on this?

[Thage]

Bitcoins are pretty volatile, so I can understand Valve's trepidation. If it were more stable and adjusted to standard inflation rates, Valve could better anticipate and price accordingly. But, as the article mentioned, explosive growth and volatility do not a safe investment for a company their size make.

[Independent voter]

I can see that, if you bought a game that morning and by that evening bitcoin had gone up $5,000 and the transaction hadn't gone through, you might've paid a $1,000 for a $50 game.

[Celista]

I mean, it is inevitable that a corporation would want to steer clear of acceptance of highly volatile currency mostly used to fund purchases of an illegal variety. Without even looking too deeply into bitcoin, it seems apparent to me that the currency is currently experiencing a bubble, that the bubble is going to break soon and people should be looking to sell off their bitcoin holdings, or be steering clear of the cryptocurrency in the first place.

[Seidhe]

Without even looking too deeply into bitcoin, it seems apparent to me that the currency is currently experiencing a bubble, that the bubble is going to break soon and people should be looking to sell off their bitcoin holdings, or be steering clear of the cryptocurrency in the first place.

Same talks were made when it was 1k$, and same talks will be when it will be 50k$

[Aurrora]

Same talks were made when it was 1k$, and same talks will be when it will be 50k$

And that’s exactly why it holds true, who would buy a pizza with bitcoin when the same bitcoin might buy a car tomorrow?

[Celista]

Same talks were made when it was 1k$, and same talks will be when it will be 50k$

It's going to happen. At this point, you should be figuring out how long you have until you cash out/fold.

[Ghostpanther]

I do not use Bitcoins, so I do not care. Only time I would is if it was to start having a serous impact on what I want to spend my US dollars on. As long as I feel I am getting good value for my money, does not matter.

[kail]

With people being able to hack your bitcoin storage, definitely not a good investment.

I'd trust my offline vault over Chase tbh. If you keep all of your BTC is something like Coinbase, that's on you.

As for Valve's decision, it's understandable. The fee's don't make sense, sounds like that's on w/e transaction service they use. Any transfers I've made had fees that were practically hard to see (like 0.00000Xish), that part doesn't make much sense to me. As a business, I'd hate to see currency I receive suddenly bubble and lose a shit ton of value. Volatility caries risks.

[Halyon]

Given the volatile, and easily illegal, nature of bitcoins, I say it's a good decision.

[Daedius]

Would be funny to buy a game for over dozen thousand dollars...

[Travis B]

Bitcoin is a Ponzi scheme. It's only a matter of time until it collapses.

[Themius]

Bitcoin is a Ponzi scheme. It's only a matter of time until it collapses.

Literally none of the markings of a ponzi

[Deleted]

Duh. As long as banks dont accept them bitcoins are only valuable on darkweb / niche websites.
Why the fuck would steam want that fairytale currency.

[GreenJesus]

Literally none of the markings of a ponzi

Tell me.. How do you price a bitcoin? Shares of a company you look at potential future cash flows, and assets of the firm, etc and derive a present value. How do you know if bitcoin is worth 1k or 10 billion? That is why I am not investing. There is no way for me to be able to evaluate how much one is worth. Right now the hype of "I'm going to ride the train up" is increasing the price but how do I know 1 bitcoin's actual value should be 10k instead of 14k?

[Rotted]

Good choice, taking all the risks out of it completely....

Could you imagine paying for a 47p game with a bit coin, it's ridiculous xD

[Doctor Amadeus]

I do not use Bitcoins, so I do not care. Only time I would is if it was to start having a serous impact on what I want to spend my US dollars on. As long as I feel I am getting good value for my money, does not matter.

I got some monopoly currency, you could buy that, it's worth $1 Trillion Dollars trust me.

[Jetstream]

Tell me.. How do you price a bitcoin? Shares of a company you look at potential future cash flows, and assets of the firm, etc and derive a present value. How do you know if bitcoin is worth 1k or 10 billion? That is why I am not investing. There is no way for me to be able to evaluate how much one is worth. Right now the hype of "I'm going to ride the train up" is increasing the price but how do I know 1 bitcoin's actual value should be 10k instead of 14k?

Be that as it may, he's still right. It's not a ponzi scheme.

[Doctor Amadeus]

Literally none of the markings of a ponzi

Yes, it does, this is proof you don't know what a Ponzi Scheme is.

[Travis B]

Literally none of the markings of a ponzi

A Ponzi scheme (/ˈpɒn.zi/; also a Ponzi game) is a fraudulent investment operation where the operator generates returns for older investors through revenue paid by new investors, rather than from legitimate business activities or profit of financial trading. Operators of Ponzi schemes can be either individuals or corporations, and grab the attention of new investors by offering short-term returns that are either abnormally high or unusually consistent.

Literally all the markings of a Ponzi scheme.