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Steam is no longer supporting Bitcoin

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Re: Steam is no longer supporting Bitcoin

#381

Post by emj »

patrickk wrote: post #361
emj wrote: post #355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does that stand for transfers over (nation) state borders as well?

Yes, at least in the SEPA area (EU, plus countries in the EU orbit): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_Euro_Payments_Area#Cove... As a means of payment in the SEPA region, Bitcoin is far worse on cost (free vs $5-10 in my experience), and sometimes worse on speed (1 - 1.5 business days for SEPA to clear). So in this geographic area, Bitcoin is literally losing to a combination of the legacy banking system, and a h…

That is still an EU payment system, which has improved a lot since the start of Bitcoin. I just need to transfer money to strange places and banks are pretty often crappy at that stuff, best solution I have is to send my credit card around the world.

Re: Steam is no longer supporting Bitcoin

#382

Post by criddell »

Double_a_92 wrote: post #378
criddell wrote: post #367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A few years ago the Winklevoss' said their target is $600,000 per coin. When I heard that, I thought they were insane. Now, I'm not so sure.

That would be the price it bitcoin was used in about 10% of all transactions worldwide.

It could get there even with far fewer transactions, right? If people keep buying bitcoin just to hold it, then the lack of sellers could drive the price to insane levels without much transaction activity.

Re: Steam is no longer supporting Bitcoin

#383

Post by [deleted] »

speedplane wrote: post #352
ForHackernews wrote: post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because there are relatively few buyers and sellers in the market and the amounts of transactions are small, so one big mover can shift the price a lot. According to some blockchain site[0] the average transaction volume for BTC is something like $2.25m USD equivalent For comparison, on an average day, SPY[1], which is just one security (albeit a popular one) trades something around $17,160m (e.g. $17.16b). [0] https…

Couldn't you say the same about penny stocks? And won't this problem go away as BTC gets more popular?

[deleted]

Re: Steam is no longer supporting Bitcoin

#384

Post by MarkMc »

colordrops wrote: post #287
johncolanduoni wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Various governments have done a pretty good job of meddling with it thus far.

How exactly have they meddled with it?

By threatening to send people who trade Bitcoin to jail: https://www.coindesk.com/bangladesh-outlaw-bitcoin-jail/

Re: Steam is no longer supporting Bitcoin

#385

Post by alexasmyths »

nmj wrote: post #336
alexasmyths wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Is it because the implications predicted by orthodox monetary theory?" ---> Bitcoin is not money There is no 'economics' or 'finance' or anything at play. It's Tulip Bulbs without the Tulip Bulbs. There are numbers, being traded back and forth for money 'because'. There is no way to price BTC - there are no real underlying drivers - just what your cab driver and the guy in your office is willing to pay in that day -…

What are your dollars but numbers being added and subtracted in a database? Things have value because people assign them value. There isn't some magical property that makes the trust in US government more legitimate than trust in math and cryptography. It would seem a lot of people would argue in favor of the latter as well.

"What are your dollars but numbers being added and subtracted in a database? "

You can use Dollars to do buy zillions of things large and small.

You can use BTC for nothing.

Dollars are backed by assets, not that it matters that much.

Re: Steam is no longer supporting Bitcoin

#386

Post by JoeAltmaier »

alexasmyths wrote: post #385
nmj wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are your dollars but numbers being added and subtracted in a database? Things have value because people assign them value. There isn't some magical property that makes the trust in US government more legitimate than trust in math and cryptography. It would seem a lot of people would argue in favor of the latter as well.

"What are your dollars but numbers being added and subtracted in a database? " You can use Dollars to do buy zillions of things large and small. You can use BTC for nothing. Dollars are backed by assets, not that it matters that much.

I'm not sure dollars are backed by anything, but the faith in the government? I suppose that's more than BTC has. Hm.

Re: Steam is no longer supporting Bitcoin

#387

Post by alexasmyths »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #386
alexasmyths wrote: post #385

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"What are your dollars but numbers being added and subtracted in a database? " You can use Dollars to do buy zillions of things large and small. You can use BTC for nothing. Dollars are backed by assets, not that it matters that much.

I'm not sure dollars are backed by anything, but the faith in the government? I suppose that's more than BTC has. Hm.

Dollars are created and exchanged for TBills (and since 2007 a lot of real estate) on the free market by the Fed.

So TBills are in fact a kind of 'faith in the governments ability to pay' - but that is a measurable, tangible, verifiable thing.

Euros are generally backed by real estate and other 'high quality' assets.

Most good national currencies are managed that way.

So - the central banks basically control how 'one asset (i.e. real estate) is turned int currency' back and forth, keeping enough currency going so as to allow for economic expansion, and to keep inflation at about 2% and unemployment in check.

At least in theory.

Re: Steam is no longer supporting Bitcoin

#388

Post by Bromskloss »

salvar wrote: post #327
Bromskloss wrote: post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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?

For a large enough sales volume, the transaction fee might be negligible, but I don't know the numbers.

Re: Steam is no longer supporting Bitcoin

#389

Post by iopq »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #224
Al-Khwarizmi wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't matter if value is appreciating or depreciating I'd say it does, but the thing is that if the value is rapidly appreciating today, it might as well be rapidly depreciating tomorrow.

The claim is that (1) if the value of a currency is unstable, it won't be useful as a medium of exchange, and that (2) whether it's unstable because it's rising or because it's falling does not affect the validity of (1). The reason for (2) is that an exchange has two parties. If the value of your currency is cratering, it won't work as a medium of exchange because vendors won't accept it, which prevents trade from h…

It doesn't prevent trade just as effectively. Trips to Seoul don't pay for themselves. What do I care if my BTC might be worth more later? In the long run, we're all dead. I want to go on a vacation NOW.

Re: Steam is no longer supporting Bitcoin

#390

Post by MarkMc »

puranjay wrote: post #356
tdb7893 wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've always been told gold isn't a good place to put your money so proponents of bitcoin comparing it to gold is concerning to me

Maybe it's a cultural thing, but I've always been told that gold is a great investment. The "digital gold" argument doesn't make sense to me at all. Human beings aren't rational spenders. Gold, if nothing else, looks good. I can buy a $10,000 bar of gold and even if its value crashes by 20% tomorrow, I at least have an aesthetic metal that feels nice to touch. BTC doesn't even give me that satisfaction

Check out the ratio of gold price to Dow Jones index for last 100 years:

http://www.macrotrends.net/1378/dow-to-gold-ratio-100-year-h...

In 1917 it was about 5, now it's about 15. So threefold increase in a century.

Plus the Dow pays around 2% dividend per year which is 7-fold increase in a century.

So US stocks outperformed gold by 21 times between 1917 and 2017.

Looking at the chart, there are very few long-term periods when gold has outperformed US stocks.

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