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Steam now accepts Bitcoin for purchases

blog.bitpay.com

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Re: Steam now accepts Bitcoin for purchases

#291

Post by afterburner »

mbmott wrote: post #93

I could see this as Steam testing the Bitcoin waters. Steam games created an entirely new market of digital items changing hands for real world money, and this is done globally across all currencies--bitcoin would be an ideal fit. I could also see value in using bitcoin to reward content creators (modders). Obviously this is crazy speculation, but seem to be solid use cases.

If they're using BitPay to handle bitcoin, they're not testing anything, just accepting the same currency they always have.

Re: Steam now accepts Bitcoin for purchases

#292

Post by lmm »

LeoPanthera wrote: post #285
lmm wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cash isn't quite as bad because it's less practical, but yes both are primarily useful for crime and antisocial activity. I would be suspicious of someone who paid a large bill in cash (or used gold, or bricks of drugs); wouldn't you?

I'm not answering your question as written because I disagree with the concept of cash and "bricks of drugs" as being equally suspicious. Being suspicious of cash is very dangerous. Historically, the poor rely on cash far more than the rich, so if we start demonizing it, really you're demonizing the poor. Politicians know this and often exploit it to help their rich friends. Bitcoin has the capability to be the great…

> Bitcoin has the capability to be the great equalizer, not just across economic bands but also across country borders.

That's backwards. Bitcoin is directly controlled by the owners of property (miners), in proportion to how much they own.

Re: Steam now accepts Bitcoin for purchases

#293

Post by xkarga00 »

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 never considered myself as a bitcoin enthusiast but I am enthusiastic about digital cryptocurrencies in general for most of the reasons you mentioned. Bitcoin (and all other cryptocurrencies) is not there yet but most of those are problems that cryptocurrencies target to solve.

An example: you could never move money over the wire anonymously before crypto came in. Well, except if you had a fake identity, which is illegal. Now you can. Of course, you need to be a security expert in order to do it but ultimately UX will get there. I wasn't around at the early days of internet but I am pretty sure if my mother could access it back then she would have no idea what to do. And here she is calling me on Skype every other night.

Another example: There are millions of people who cannot afford buying a computer as you already said but possess low-cost mobile phones. There are already a bunch of bitcoin startups targeting that market. Apps and tools will eventually evolve up to the point where they will be accessible, easy-to-use, scam-free, safe. We just need to build them.

Re: Steam now accepts Bitcoin for purchases

#295

Post by solotronics »

mbmott wrote: post #138
sievebrain wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Bitcoin users were naturally making more and more payments or there were more and more users, and then it ran up against the block size limit, how would you know whether there was a DOS attack or not? Wouldn't it look like a permanent DOS attack? Did it blow over because the block size limit was increased?

I call it a DOS attack because blocks aren't regularly full anymore and the transaction data showed that the flood of transactions were "peeling chains", meaning they mostly had the same source. There is blockchain data to back this up. The blocksize hasn't been increased yet. It blew over due to wallets improving their fee support. If you are in a hurry and need quick confirmations you increase your fee by 10 cents,…

Currently the calculations show that for your transaction to be processed first it should have a $.06 fee. Transactions with fees down to about $.01 are basically guaranteed to be processed but may take longer. Many 0 fee transactions are processed but they have no guarantee.

The modern wallet softwares all calculate and offer different fees based on the expediency of the transaction.

"The fastest and cheapest transaction fee is currently 60 satoshis/byte, shown in green at the top. For the median transaction size of 226 bytes, this results in a fee of 13,560 satoshis (0.06$)."

Re: Steam now accepts Bitcoin for purchases

#296

Post by Forbo »

VMG wrote: post #254
Forbo wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "That electricity cost is a lot better for the environment than the standing armies required to secure fiat money." There are better alternatives to brute-forcing hashes and generating nothing but waste heat in order to mine cryptocurrency. At least those cycles could be put toward something useful, like the Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing (BOINC). Gridcoin uses proof-of-research in BOINC as the…

If the PoW serves any other purpose than mining bitcoin, it can't be used, since there won't be any opportunity cost in mining on the most recent chain.

I'm not sure I follow what you mean. I didn't mean that this be used for mining bitcoin, but rather that there are other cryptocurrencies that have useful by-products. Am I misunderstanding your comment?

Re: Steam now accepts Bitcoin for purchases

#298

Post by chc »

stegosaurus wrote: post #162
wyldfire wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's really polarizing because it forces us to question what we think of as currency. Is it sufficient for it to be scarce, durable, verifyable and fungible or should it have some independent utility or backing? Some of the vitriol is backlash against the zealots who feel that Bitcoin can/should enable elements of anarchy.

I think that's only true if you follow this idea that Bitcoin is going to take over the world, become a global reserve currency, we should hold 100% net worth in it, whatever. Regardless of correctness, that sort of attitude feels really stressful to me (to think about the ultimate endgame of anything that ever happens under some 'ideal' circumstances). I don't think it's healthy. For the time being, we have a cool t…

If it were borderline impossible to have a discussion of GPG without getting swamped by those cypherpunks, people would totally rant about it.

Re: Steam now accepts Bitcoin for purchases

#299

Post by pointsphere »

magicfractal wrote: post #297

How would the DRM zone controls Steam currently have work with this? Before, you needed to have a credit card of the country you're buying the game from.

Probably "not at all".

I can only assume that the number of buyers using both Bitcoin and a VPN to buy cheaper games is too small to worry about.

Re: Steam now accepts Bitcoin for purchases

#300

Post by j_s »

magicfractal wrote: post #297

How would the DRM zone controls Steam currently have work with this? Before, you needed to have a credit card of the country you're buying the game from.

Sorry I don't have time to dig into their choice of implementation but one way would be for Bitcoin to be a secondary payment option for those who have already registered a credit card.
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