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Steam now accepts Bitcoin for purchases

blog.bitpay.com

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Re: Steam now accepts Bitcoin for purchases

#261

Post by matt4077 »

ryanlol wrote: post #191
mbmott wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As far as I know you can't make a purchase without having valid payment data. There might be a work around, but probably not via Bitcoin payments. Bitpay is definitely subject to KYC / AML compliance.

> As far as I know you can't make a purchase without having valid payment data. What is "valid payment data"? How do they validate this data? >Bitpay is definitely subject to KYC / AML compliance. Why is that relevant?

Steam uses Bitpay. "KYC" means "know your customer". "Customer" is the guy/gal trying to use Steam to launder bitcoin. Relevance elucidated?

Re: Steam now accepts Bitcoin for purchases

#262

Post by exbitcoinuser »

stegosaurus wrote: post #141

I find the vitriol towards Bitcoin kind of odd. If I posted an article about Linux 4.1 or something, I wouldn't expect to see comments saying 'meanwhile, I used Windows yesterday, and played GTA5, and it was good'. What gives? Are there forums in which people have this sort of reaction to, I dunno, HTML5? From some of the posts here you would think that it's IED control software.

I believe most people don't realize that to support Bitcoin you either have to adhere to extremely polarizing political beliefs or be completely neutral about it (because you don't care or you don't know). (IMO, of course)

People who are neutral might fail to realize the political implications of Bitcoin and immediately jump to "those people are mental, why do they hate us?"

That applies pretty much to any political discussion ever.

Re: Steam now accepts Bitcoin for purchases

#263

Post by [deleted] »

vectorpush wrote: post #225
stegosaurus wrote: post #141

I find the vitriol towards Bitcoin kind of odd. If I posted an article about Linux 4.1 or something, I wouldn't expect to see comments saying 'meanwhile, I used Windows yesterday, and played GTA5, and it was good'. What gives? Are there forums in which people have this sort of reaction to, I dunno, HTML5? From some of the posts here you would think that it's IED control software.

I'll offer a controversial explanation: bitcoin enthusiasts have exhausted most of the oxygen in the room with regard to rational bitcoin discussion. The never-ending adulation of bitcoin as the greatest invention since the internet, the hyperbolic claims that bitcoin will do things like revolutionize payments, end global war, eliminate the need for banks, liberate the people from bondage, the litany of bitcoin and b…

[deleted]

Re: Steam now accepts Bitcoin for purchases

#264

Post by Rmilb »

stegosaurus wrote: post #182
apo wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've run into the sentiment you're talking about both online and IRL. It puzzles me as well. Three factors come to mind: 1. There's a deep-rooted idea today that money comes from the government and that everything else is a scam. Bitcoin challenges that idea. 2. Bitcoin refuses to die despite the predictions of just about everyone who first learns about it. 3. The technical underpinnings of Bitcoin are counterintuiti…

As I posted further down - most of the issues here seem to stem from people having this idea that in the extreme long term Bitcoin takes over the world and 'their' (as if this is some sort of holy war?) green bits of paper become firewood or something. That isn't a realistic model for how the world works and is really just an odd way of thinking. I can play Quake 3 and have fun with it, and post blogs about it, witho…

I think the perception that all Bitcoin advocates think that Bitcoin will "Destroy" all fiat money and we will all be worshiping Satoshi for delivering us, is wide spread and mostly false.

Re: Steam now accepts Bitcoin for purchases

#265

Post by lmm »

stegosaurus wrote: post #141

I find the vitriol towards Bitcoin kind of odd. If I posted an article about Linux 4.1 or something, I wouldn't expect to see comments saying 'meanwhile, I used Windows yesterday, and played GTA5, and it was good'. What gives? Are there forums in which people have this sort of reaction to, I dunno, HTML5? From some of the posts here you would think that it's IED control software.

It's a technology for allowing money to bypass the rule of law. By design it concentrates power in the hands of property owners, and allows them to undercut democratic rules against activities with negative externalities - and since it's more expensive than currency, those are the only use cases that make sense; prime use cases would be things like drugs, smuggling, tax evasion, child porn, terrorism. I think IED control software is a pretty fair comparison actually, except that IEDs are somewhat more democratic.

Re: Steam now accepts Bitcoin for purchases

#266

Post by bduerst »

vectorpush wrote: post #225
stegosaurus wrote: post #141

I find the vitriol towards Bitcoin kind of odd. If I posted an article about Linux 4.1 or something, I wouldn't expect to see comments saying 'meanwhile, I used Windows yesterday, and played GTA5, and it was good'. What gives? Are there forums in which people have this sort of reaction to, I dunno, HTML5? From some of the posts here you would think that it's IED control software.

I'll offer a controversial explanation: bitcoin enthusiasts have exhausted most of the oxygen in the room with regard to rational bitcoin discussion. The never-ending adulation of bitcoin as the greatest invention since the internet, the hyperbolic claims that bitcoin will do things like revolutionize payments, end global war, eliminate the need for banks, liberate the people from bondage, the litany of bitcoin and b…

I've seen some of the worst biases manifest themselves around bitcoin.

My theory is that in the shadow of the bubble collapse, the desire for bitcoin to succeed has driven wishful thinking to the extreme, where some vocal bitcoin evangelists ignore or spin reality to reconcile it with their desire.

It's more akin to the old XBox vs Playstation flame wars, where a console fan could just admit the cons along with the pros, but then that wouldn't fully validate their decision to invest.

An example of some of the spin that I'm talking about: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10959211

Re: Steam now accepts Bitcoin for purchases

#267

Post by LeoPanthera »

lmm wrote: post #265
stegosaurus wrote: post #141

I find the vitriol towards Bitcoin kind of odd. If I posted an article about Linux 4.1 or something, I wouldn't expect to see comments saying 'meanwhile, I used Windows yesterday, and played GTA5, and it was good'. What gives? Are there forums in which people have this sort of reaction to, I dunno, HTML5? From some of the posts here you would think that it's IED control software.

It's a technology for allowing money to bypass the rule of law. By design it concentrates power in the hands of property owners, and allows them to undercut democratic rules against activities with negative externalities - and since it's more expensive than currency, those are the only use cases that make sense; prime use cases would be things like drugs, smuggling, tax evasion, child porn, terrorism. I think IED con…

Are you talking about Bitcoin, or cash?

Re: Steam now accepts Bitcoin for purchases

#268

Post by exbitcoinuser »

DickingAround wrote: post #184
stegosaurus wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're spot on with this. The general quality of discourse on any thread seems to drop hugely whenever politics comes up. We seem to be able to leave each other alone when it comes to using vi vs. emacs - the odd joke comes up, but that's about it. But politics? There seems to be this attitude of conversion, missionaries, convincing, it's kind of frustrating. I think it's healthy to question one's views somet…

The debate about Linux desktop or bitcoin need not be political. But I'd like to offer an indicator for when things inevitably become 'political'; when there's no provably correct answer and the use of force is involved.

> The debate about Linux desktop or bitcoin need not be political.

I agree, but that doesn't mean we should silence people who bring up political issues.

> But I'd like to offer an indicator for when things inevitably become 'political'; when there's no provably correct answer and the use of force is involved.

That's a good indicator that pretty much everyone would agree.

However, what constitutes "use of force", however, changes from people to people. Some people believe that merely having a state is "use of force". Other people believe that having a billion dollars to bargain is "use of force". It gets crazier: other people believe it's neither. Or both. Etcetera.

Re: Steam now accepts Bitcoin for purchases

#269

Post by bduerst »

[deleted] wrote: post #263
vectorpush wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll offer a controversial explanation: bitcoin enthusiasts have exhausted most of the oxygen in the room with regard to rational bitcoin discussion. The never-ending adulation of bitcoin as the greatest invention since the internet, the hyperbolic claims that bitcoin will do things like revolutionize payments, end global war, eliminate the need for banks, liberate the people from bondage, the litany of bitcoin and b…

[deleted]

If bitcoin enthusiasts were capable of rational discussion, then why did you just build up the 'troll' straw man and knock it down?

They're not making a blanket statement or even saying that bitcoin enthusiasts are incapable of rational discussion. They're talking about biases around the bitcoin industry, and as a self-proclaimed enthusiast, you ignored it and went straight to name calling.

Edit: Your massive wall-of-text edit doesn't can't hide the fact that your immediate response was incredibly biased.

Re: Steam now accepts Bitcoin for purchases

#270

Post by Rmilb »

rhino369 wrote: post #223
mbmott wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bitcoin's utility is being a global currency. Like I said, Bitcoin will scale like the internet scaled which is in direct proportion to demand. Blocks aren't often full and if you are in a hurry then you need to pay 10 or 20 cents to prioritize your transaction.

>Bitcoin's utility is being a global currency. But it's hard to get and hard to use. It's useful for a pseudo-anonymous transfer for value. Unless I'm doing something illegal, Visa is a better option.

That's very true, Bitcoin doesn't solve many problems for people with access to credit banking. However, billions of people don't have access to Visa or a bank account. They only need a phone to send payments internationally.
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