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Steam now accepts Bitcoin for purchases

blog.bitpay.com

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Re: Steam now accepts Bitcoin for purchases

#381

Post by Andrew_Quentin »

Cyph0n wrote: post #129
WJW wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't reply to Cyphons coment for some reason, but there seems to be a problem with setting up the trade he describes. If it's succesful, he will then be stuck with a large amount of TND, which he has no use for and, due to the currency controls, can't convert to a currency that is useful for him. That is leaving out the point that both the operators and the clients are willfully circumventing the law, which most g…

Actually I'm a Tunisian, so the TND will be useful in the long run as an investment. But that still prevents me from reinvesting it into the business i.e. buying more BTC. One way is to simply buy BTC from local sellers who perhaps bring BTC from outside the country. They take a cut and I add a markup before selling it back. But there's another advantage I have. I'm currently residing outside the country, and if I do…

You'd require some (substantial) investment, but you can always just mine them. Tunisia should have some fairly cheap electricity. Not sure how you can get the Asics there though. Maybe contact one of the sellers directly. They'll probably accept btc.

Re: Steam now accepts Bitcoin for purchases

#382

Post by ryanlol »

ChemicalWarfare wrote: post #377
ryanl0l wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Then why does it only happen using bitcoin? Because some people insist on waiting for the payment to settle before actually providing the services, although it's not nearly as common as it used to be. This is just completely unrealistic with credit cards where settlement times are far longer than with bitcoin, days or months. >Wherever you want to lay the blame (anywhere but bitcoin) it's a problem for anyone using…

Credit card payment is a '2 phase' process. The second phase you are referring to as settlement - moving funds from the issuing bank to merchant's bank does take days. The first phase of the process - authorization, when successful not only makes sure the customer has enough credit on their account, it also reduces their buying power by the grand total of the auth thus guaranteeing the funds to the merchant. And it t…

Bitcoin works exactly the same, except settlement times are significantly shorter.

You authorize (sign) a transaction, broadcast it and the network confirms it.

Signing a transaction takes only a fractions of a second, and to the merchant it's a significantly stronger guarantee of settlement than a credit card authorization.

Re: Steam now accepts Bitcoin for purchases

#383

Post by EdHominem »

Frondo wrote: post #234
clarkmoody wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> anti-environmentalist ... vast amounts of wasted electricity Ironically uses politically-charged language when discussing how bitcoin gets political. How about: "I'm concerned with the amount of electricity devoted to mining." Some of the bitcoin-is-going-to-take-over advocates could counter with, "That electricity cost is a lot better for the environment than the standing armies required to secure fiat money."

And, of course, the idea that bitcoin changes the world so radically that no one has an army anymore is absurd. But I think you've just touched on another reason why people react so strongly to bitcoin-related articles. It's like, bitcoin started out with a pretty good-sounding idea: decentralized currency, like the old Gnutella network except for money! hey I like it! Then people start talking about it and the first…

> Better start coding, except no one will accept your patches to bump up the 21 million bitcoin supply...not so democratic.

That's a horrible change.

But it's a perfect example of the ultimate democracy. Everyone has the freedom to listen to you, they're choosing not to.

Re: Steam now accepts Bitcoin for purchases

#384

Post by VMG »

bduerst wrote: post #361
VMG wrote: post #312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These other cryptocurrencies are less secure than bitcoin. For them, the cost of attacking the network by mining on an orphaned chain is lower, because by definition the PoW has a useful by-product. The more useful the byproduct, the less secure the coin. Edit: to illustrate, imagine a PoW that computes cures for cancer. Somebody can now mine on whichever block of the chain he wants forever, since he's producing a ca…

A cure-cancer PoW where each block fixes all of cancer is ridiculous. A more apt analogy would be that each block would solve a protein folding or active site matching problem for cancer. Then each solution would be public, and useless to mine over again.

It was hyperbole. It's the same deal in your example: if the is a PoW reward outside the currency, the cost of mining on the wrong chain drops.

The PoW must only be useful for the coin you are mining and nothing rise.

Re: Steam now accepts Bitcoin for purchases

#385

Post by EdHominem »

easuter wrote: post #319
statoshi wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it less and less likely that Bitcoin will be replaced given the amount of investment (both time and money) put into the system. If Bitcoin was remaining stagnant, I'd be pessimistic as well, but there are a multitude of improvements that will be deployed over the course of the next year.

I'll take all these improvements with a pinch of salt until they are actually in the wild. Take the lighting network for example. The idea has been floating around for quite some time but in practice its still vaporware. Yet, ask any bitcoin enthusiast what's being done to solve the scalability problem and the LN is trotted out as if it were already widely adopted. It's ridiculous.

Sidechains are an answer, for you, if you don't feel the current blockchains scale for your needs. For micropayments, or whatever. But they don't solve anything per-se because nothing is broken.

Pay to publish is a feature. It's the rate-limiting mechanism we'd need anyways, but directly tied into PoW and reward.

Make your coin and ask people if they want to use it instead of bitcoin. It's so easy, and you can be proven right.

Re: Steam now accepts Bitcoin for purchases

#386

Post by VMG »

bduerst wrote: post #304
VMG wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Their point is that the PoW is wasteful because the redundant work is useless. See primecoin.io for an example of more useful PoW.

So in primecoin I can mine on any block and generate a useful byproduct?

What stops me from attacking that network by mining on my private chain with a double spend? I have no opportunity cost.

Re: Steam now accepts Bitcoin for purchases

#387

Post by jzwinck »

aianus wrote: post #305
wallacoloo wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it is a meaningful distinction for some. For those of us hoping to avoid the overhead of payment processors by using bitcoin, it puts the two methods on equal footing instead - there's still a middleman taking a (likely nontrivial) cut from our purchases. Also, I imagine CNY -> USD conversion is probably done on an exchange instead of through a company like BitPay, so the comparison might not be very accurate.

> Also, I imagine CNY -> USD conversion is probably done on an exchange instead of through a company like BitPay, so the comparison might not be very accurate. There is no such thing as a Forex exchange, it is done through banks who hedge their exposure to other market participants over-the-counter and take a cut just the same. There is absolutely no reason (in the long term) that Bitcoin would cost more to exchange…

If there is no such thing as a forex exchange, what is this?

http://www.hotspotfx.com/products/the_hotspot_ecn.jsp

Re: Steam now accepts Bitcoin for purchases

#388

Post by EdHominem »

lmm wrote: post #292
LeoPanthera wrote: post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That'd be a proof-of-stake coin. They exist. You're thinking of in proportion to their percentage of the network mining power. Which for a pool (cartel?) can be sizable.

But that it is more akin to controlling the post-office than controlling the bank. People can be inconvenienced but not stolen from (except in certain cases with confederates of the post-master) and those can be guarded against more easily than avoiding phishing email from "your bank".

Re: Steam now accepts Bitcoin for purchases

#389

Post by ascorbic »

digi_owl wrote: post #310
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…

You get this because the properties of bitcoin attracts two kinds of people. Goldbugs, because of how bitcoin is "mined" and is inherently deflationary. And gold is the one true currency, m'kay. Cypherpunks, because it is built around cryptographics. And cryptographics makes anything double plus good. Never mind that both kinds have a strong anti-establishment streak. That said, if they could get away form their anti…

Well, there is a third, rather significant type of bitcoin user: people who don't particularly care about the cool crypto or sticking it to the Fed, but do like the ability to make anonymous payments. And let's not be coy about who many if not most of these are: criminals.

Re: Steam now accepts Bitcoin for purchases

#390

Post by aserafini »

Houshalter wrote: post #372
digi_owl wrote: post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hoarding is a bad thing when we are talking about a currency. The main function of a currency is exchange, not storage. Without a currency you are back at the barter stage, or move to IOUs (that may ironically turn into currency if allows to pass from person to person).

I don't see how you get that conclusion. For one thing, it's not even true, people don't actually hoard currency. They put it in a bank, which invests 90% of it back out into the economy. They've done that even since currency was backed by gold. Second, even if people literally did fill vaults full of cash, it doesn't hurt anyone. It's not like all the currency is going to actually disappear and people will have to g…

The remaining currency just becomes worth more.

This is the key point that addresses why hoarding makes no difference to Bitcoin's utility as a currency.

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