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Steam is no longer supporting Bitcoin

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Re: Steam is no longer supporting Bitcoin

#321

Post by hossbeast »

LsDmT wrote: post #309
jsmthrowaway wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't think most reputable proponents have been saying that for years though. Define reputable. > Announcing the first release of Bitcoin, a new electronic cash system http://web.archive.org/web/20090131115053/http://bitcoin.org... > Instant transactions for points-of-sale http://web.archive.org/web/20130805223235/http://bitcoin.org... (That verbiage lasted most of 2013, but was removed a couple days after this c…

Are you of the opinion bitcoins development is done? User adoption has skyrocketed and far surpassed expectation. The first ever Lightning Network transaction happened today. Bitcoin is still early technology and it will take time to developers a p2p secure digital form if cash. Ethereum, the supposed answer to bitcoins problem has just recently began to see the exact same problem. Why? Because of a dumb kitten game…

"The first ever Lightning Network transaction happened today". Do you have a source for this where I can read more?

Re: Steam is no longer supporting Bitcoin

#322

Post by fergie »

vxNsr wrote: post #3

It's for the same reason that no one wanted to touch zimbabwe dollar back in 2007, if the value of the medium of exchange differs from breakfast to lunch it's not really a good medium of exchange. Doesn't matter if value is appreciating or depreciating, currency needs to have a reasonably stable value to be useful.

And that feeds into the wider question of whether bitcoin is a medium of exchange or a commodity. At this point in time it is clearly the latter. You wouldn't swap a lump of copper for a game on Steam, so it makes no sense to swap a lump of bitcoin either

Re: Steam is no longer supporting Bitcoin

#324

Post by cfontes »

ArchD wrote: post #300
vxNsr wrote: post #3

It's for the same reason that no one wanted to touch zimbabwe dollar back in 2007, if the value of the medium of exchange differs from breakfast to lunch it's not really a good medium of exchange. Doesn't matter if value is appreciating or depreciating, currency needs to have a reasonably stable value to be useful.

That's what bitcoin futures can be used for, to hedge your BTC position, and you don't have to wait for 10 minutes for your trade to complete. For example, if you own 5 BTC and want to hedge the USD value of your portfolio against BTCUSD fluctuation, you can short 1 CME bitcoin contract ( http://www.cmegroup.com/trading/equity-index/us-index/bitcoi... ). If BTCUSD decreases, the USD value of your 5 BTC decreases whil…

It's a good option and it's sure used in stocks and commodities but do they want all that extra work? Managing that is a pain and what is the upside of doing it? depending on the amount of bitcoins they handled against fiat currency it probably didn't make sense.

Re: Steam is no longer supporting Bitcoin

#325

Post by _Tev »

namelost wrote: post #288
derriz wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh? The volatility is a HUGE problem for bitcoin as a currency. If I run a small business, accepting payment in bitcoin just creates risk. The state of my business not only depends on the quality and success of my product/service but also on the volatility of bitcoin because by accepting bitcoin I am forced to effectively take a long position on BTC. The price could crash by 25% before I sell the bitcoin and now I've…

The volatility of Bitcoin has been decreasing over time.

Recent price jumps tell a different story.

Do you have any data to back it up?

Re: Steam is no longer supporting Bitcoin

#326

Post by zodiac »

tlrobinson wrote: post #304
zodiac wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it is worth pointing out that it is not exactly equivalent, in the sense that if you pay Steam via a payment channel (for simplicity, a one-directional payment channel, so they don't need to lock up any cryptocurrency themselves), they don't need to settle on-chain, but if they don't do so they cannot use the "money" the received from you to pay someone else (eg their lawyer). In the very long term, if we get…

> if they don't do so they cannot use the "money" the received from you to pay someone else (eg their lawyer). They certainly can if their lawyer is also on the Lightning Network. Eventually all Bitcoin wallets should support on-chain and Lightning Network transactions, and seamlessly pick one or the other depending on the transaction amount.

No, they really can't. They have to open a payment channel with their lawyer (or open it with someone who has a path of channels to their lawyer), and that requires them to own cryptocurrency on-chain to use as stake (what LN calls the funding transaction)

Re: Steam is no longer supporting Bitcoin

#327

Post by salvar »

Bromskloss wrote: post #283
derriz wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh? The volatility is a HUGE problem for bitcoin as a currency. If I run a small business, accepting payment in bitcoin just creates risk. The state of my business not only depends on the quality and success of my product/service but also on the volatility of bitcoin because by accepting bitcoin I am forced to effectively take a long position on BTC. The price could crash by 25% before I sell the bitcoin and now I've…

> The price could crash by 25% before I sell the bitcoin and now I've a cash-flow problem Well, the parent comment said "if the transactions were quick", meaning that you would exchange the bitcoin for something else as soon as you received them (within a second or minute, say).

Wouldn't that cost a huge amount in transaction fees, making the whole thing moot?

Re: Steam is no longer supporting Bitcoin

#328

Post by tehlike »

LsDmT wrote: post #306
malloryerik wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the futures markets at the CBOT or CME attract volume, you could use those. Otherwise, you'd have to do it over-the-counter. Borrow a bitcoin from someone and turn it into real money. When you have to repay, if BTC is down, you'll buy back a BTC at a profit. If it's up, you'll have to buy back at a loss. Note that this gives you a maximum gain of whatever BTC/USD is today (assuming you denominate in greenbacks), w…

What you mean? You can short any crypto currency on many exchanges. Bitfinex and GDAX being the biggest right now.

It would take some gut to do it.

Re: Steam is no longer supporting Bitcoin

#329

Post by retromario »

vel0city wrote: post #260
retromario wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the explanation. Why do transactions vary so much in relative size?

A transaction can have many inputs and many outputs. These are all Bitcoin addresses. Sally and Bob each have 1 Bitcoin. Sally received her bitcoin to a single address. If Sally wants to send that 1 Bitcoin to Charlie, that transaction would have 1 input (the address she received it on) and one output (the address Charlie wants to receive it to). Bob has 1 Bitcoin total, but his 1 Bitcoin came from 4 x 0.25 transacti…

Thanks, that makes a lot of sense now.

Re: Steam is no longer supporting Bitcoin

#330

Post by granitosaurus »

kpozin wrote: post #314

In the U.S., it seems absurd to even consider Bitcoin (or any other cryptocurrency) for small day-to-day transactions like Steam purchases. Under the current IRS guidance, every sale or exchange of cryptocurrency is a taxable event. That means that for every $10 game you bought with Bitcoin during the last summer sale, you now have to calculate the cost basis, capital gains, etc., of the BTC you used, and list it on…

Fortunately that's not the case in the rest of the world. I've recently emailed Estonian tax agency for clarification of this exactly because of people claiming this to be the case. They told me if you buy bitcoin and pay in bitcoin you are not required to declare this spending.

However various taxing agencies are still trying to figure out what to do with crypto, so I reckon it's too early to claim absolutes.

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