Steam now accepts Bitcoin for purchases • Hacker News Board

Re: Steam now accepts Bitcoin for purchases

#101

Post by aliakhtar » Thu, Apr 28, 2016, 1:21 PM UTC

exo762 wrote: post #91

aliakhtar wrote: post #72

In other news, I live in Pakistan, and I used a debit card to buy a steam game 3 days ago and it worked instantly + frictionlessly, without having to worry about confirmation times + exchange rates + getting scammed + getting on a government list.

Steam/bitpay don't wait for transaction for put money into your steam wallet. Also, no exchange rates are involved in any meaningful way. This offer is for people who can handle few percent exposure on their 100USD "investment" into BTC. A lot of people don't have debit cards. A lot of kids can't own debit cards legally. For them Bitcoin might be the only option.

> Steam/bitpay don't wait for transaction for put money into your steam wallet

The guy who made the reddit announcement had to wait 1day+ because his txn didn't get the 6 confirmations. Compared to that, my visa txn took approximately.. 10 seconds? While I was in Lahore, Pakistan.

> No exchange rates are involved in any meaningful way.

That's a dishonest statement to make.

> A lot of people don't have debit cards.

That's what you think. Its trivial for anyone who wants to get one (and doesn't have a criminal background) to get one.

If you mean people who don't know how to open a bank account, they're even less likely to know how private / public key encryption works and use bitcoin.

> A lot of kids

Gift cards.

Re: Steam now accepts Bitcoin for purchases

#102

Post by Cyph0n » Thu, Apr 28, 2016, 1:23 PM UTC

Flimm wrote: post #86

Cyph0n wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sorry, but you're looking at Bitcoin from a narrow viewpoint. There are in fact people who actually need Bitcoin in their day-to-day. My home country Tunisia for example has very strict currency controls in place, which means that it is impossible to purchase any goods from outside the country or even transfer money overseas. The government now provides rechargeable card with a 1000 TND (~500 USD) limit that can…

How do you convert TND to BTC?

I take your TND, and then I give you BTC which I've purchased. I will also buy your BTC, but I'll likely rely on BTC purchased from foreign exchanges. You then use that BTC for whatever. The problem is that it becomes difficult to bring in casual customers due to the overhead introduced by Bitcoin, as Bitcoin is virtually unknown in Tunisia.

A common issue in Tunisia especially is sending money to relatives in France. I want to give them the end-to-end experience in one place: you send me TND, I send your relative EUR. But everything I've thought of to accomplish that is just too complex.

So right now my idea is just to give users BTC in an online wallet and let them do whatever they want with it. That means I'll need to effectively educate users about the basics of Bitcoin at the very least.

Re: Steam now accepts Bitcoin for purchases

#103

Post by aliakhtar » Thu, Apr 28, 2016, 1:24 PM UTC

mbmott wrote: post #87

aliakhtar wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because a lot of us understand the underlying tech, and how bullshit it is that a $100 cell phone has a higher TPS rate than the entire bitcoin network, which consumes more electricity than a small country (and all the CO2 emissions that go with it)

A $100 cellphone isn't a decentralized peer to peer network. You are comparing apples to nose-hairs. Bitcoin will scale in the same way the internet scaled... slowly and then suddenly.

People don't use cars because they have a hard on for internal combustion engines. They use cars to go from one place to another, i.e their utility. The utility of bitcoin is its TPS rate.

Re: Steam now accepts Bitcoin for purchases

#104

Post by Fargren » Thu, Apr 28, 2016, 1:24 PM UTC

rglullis wrote: post #68

joosters wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Valve doesn't handle any bit coins.

Conversely, someone in Argentina or Venezuela doesn't deal with any (government-controlled) USD. Why is that so hard for Americans to understand?

You can buy as many dollars as you want in Argentina since December.

Re: Steam now accepts Bitcoin for purchases

#105

Post by TheCoelacanth » Thu, Apr 28, 2016, 1:26 PM UTC

transfire wrote: post #89

I thought Bitcoin had run into a fundamental problem that transactions were now taking hours co complete. And that an internal battle among developers on the fix remained unresolved. Did I miss something?

I think it was more that the amount that you need to pay to get your transactions to complete in a reasonable amount of time has gotten higher.

That's not a problem for Steam, since the fees are still much lower than credit card processing fees for larger transactions (as in at least several dollars). It is a big problem for people who have dreams of micro-transactions via bitcoins.

Re: Steam now accepts Bitcoin for purchases

#106

Post by ultramancool » Thu, Apr 28, 2016, 1:26 PM UTC

coldtea wrote: post #45

> Steam now accepts Bitcoin for purchases Translation: cheap publicity in tech media and goodwill from some geek sites with no impact whatsoever on its actual revenues and 99.999% of payments.

Might be able to use this to buy games at massive discount on Russian VPN too. Bitcoin doesn't demand I upload a passport to make a Russian account. This may help drive down prices on RU/CIS versions of games on secondary markets like G2A too.

Re: Steam now accepts Bitcoin for purchases

#107

Post by sergiosgc » Thu, Apr 28, 2016, 1:26 PM UTC

forgetsusername wrote: post #42

clemensley wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've always wondered why hackernews hates bitcoin so much. Can someone explain?

> Can someone explain? What exactly is the news here? Some company accepts some new form of payment that hardly anyone uses. When it comes to "money", Bitcoin proponents seem massively misinformed on how it actually works. The blockchain technology is interesting, but a new currency isn't as exciting as they want you to believe. I don't care that my dollar has no inherent value, as long as people accept it in exchang…

> Some company accepts some new form of payment that hardly anyone uses.

I also believed that. Recently I've come to realize I'm skewed because I'm in an eastern country with little financial controls. Bitcoin has real traction in places like Brazil or China. That has real value, and it is enough to make BTC gain critical mass.

Had you asked me two months ago, I'd say bitcoin as a currency was doomed. Today? Not so sure anymore.

Re: Steam now accepts Bitcoin for purchases

#108

Post by Scirra_Tom » Thu, Apr 28, 2016, 1:26 PM UTC

Grue3 wrote: post #20

StavrosK wrote: post #12

I was really surprised that the announcement that Steam may support Bitcoin made waves a while ago, yet the announcement that it actually does did not. I used it to buy a (horrible) game last night, and it worked beautifully. Contrast with PayPal, with which Steam is always confused about where I am and whether it should charge me in GBP or EUR. I'm never not using Bitcoin again.

What about refunds? With Paypal you know you're getting the same amount back, in the same currency, as if you haven't bought anything at all. Given the fluctuating nature of Bitcoin, surely that's not possible?

I imagine you'd get the refund of the USD (or whatever your currency is) equivalent at time of purchase in your Steam wallet.

Re: Steam now accepts Bitcoin for purchases

#109

Post by Fogest » Thu, Apr 28, 2016, 1:26 PM UTC

mbmott wrote: post #82

chii wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this seems like a good way to launder bitcoins. Unless if you got back _the same_ coins you spent - i guess steam holding on to your coins for 2hrs~ isn't that big of a risk, rather than immediately swapping it out for cash.

Not the case. The bitcoin you paid in and the bitcoin refunded to you are tied directly to your real identity, so I'm not sure what value "laundering" would have. There are no dirty bitcoins--see the U.S. Gov sale of the Silk Road coins as proof of this. Bitcoin does have mixing services that would "launder" or obfuscate the link between bitcoin and your real identity, which does provide value for some users.

But you don't have to have valid data on your steam account?

Re: Steam now accepts Bitcoin for purchases

#110

Post by Cyph0n » Thu, Apr 28, 2016, 1:27 PM UTC

coldtea wrote: post #80

Cyph0n wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sorry, but you're looking at Bitcoin from a narrow viewpoint. There are in fact people who actually need Bitcoin in their day-to-day. My home country Tunisia for example has very strict currency controls in place, which means that it is impossible to purchase any goods from outside the country or even transfer money overseas. The government now provides rechargeable card with a 1000 TND (~500 USD) limit that can…

> I'm sorry, but you're looking at Bitcoin from a narrow viewpoint. There are in fact people who actually need Bitcoin in their day-to-day. Well, perhaps, but (a) these people are a very small amount compared to "first world" bitcoin champions (b) they would be better off pushing for actual policy change regarding their problems, instead of using a technological workaround who (depending on the whims of those in powe…

Actually, I'd argue that the potential for Bitcoin lies more in third world countries than economically developed ones. First world countries usually don't suffer from unstable currencies or financial controls, which is what makes the utility of Bitcoin seem quite limited.

Yes, your second point is true, but sometimes the country itself is struggling to stabilize its currency. Thankfully, that's not (yet) the case in Tunisia.