4 ms·

Honestly, why do you care what Valve does with the BTC? If people want to use it, so be it. The backend isn't your concern.

by lsadam0 10y ago

joosters 10y ago
Valve doesn't handle any bit coins.
- ThatPlayer 10y ago
  How do you know that? Bitpay allows you to keep a percentage as Bitcoins rather than converting them all to USD.
- lsadam0 10y ago
  Ok, so? Bitcoin is an accepted payment method. Why should you care how exactly they handle processing of it? The only measure of success here is how much people do or do not use it. Are you honestly trying to argue against their acceptance by nitpicking the details of the backend implementation? 99.9% of people don't care.
  - k33n 10y ago
    It read to me as questioning the value of BTC since neither Bitpay or Valve are interested in holding BTC themselves.
    - lsadam0 10y ago
      That would not change my stance.
    - statoshi 10y ago
      It should be quite clear that in this particular instance, Valve has decided that Bitcoin has utility as a transfer of value. You're questioning whether or not Bitcoin has utility as a store of value / unit of account. It appears that to Valve it does not, but there is also a chicken/egg issue with bootstrapping a new currency given that Bitcoin doesn't have sufficient adoption yet to complete a full lifecycle in terms of usage. That is - Valve has no use in holding bitcoins because they can't use them to pay their bills. This may change at some point.
    - ok_craig 10y ago
      At this point there are many people who simply have bitcoin. Maybe they bought it a long time ago, maybe they bought it recently. The acquisition time isn't really a factor anymore, it's been around long enough that people simply have it, and they would like to be able to spend it directly. There are not many people specifically acquiring bitcoin just to pay for steam games with it, where it will be converted right back. Maybe some to test. Questioning the value as a result of the "usd -> btc -> usd" transfer isn't really applicable because it just generally doesn't apply anymore.
  - enraged_camel 10y ago
    >>The only measure of success here is how much people do or do not use it. No, that's your only measure of success. In order for Bitcoin to succeed as a viable payment platform, businesses also need to adopt it wholly, which means actually conducting business in Bitcoin rather than converting it to a "real" currency as soon as possible. Basically, if they are treating it as hot potato, that means they see it as too unstable and risky.
    - phil21 10y ago
      > Basically, if they are treating it as hot potato, that means they see it as too unstable and risky. Eh, I'm not so sure. You are probably right, but at the same time they probably want USD for the same reason they get USD from Paypal or their merchant bank when someone pays in a different currency. Is Paypal not a viable payment platform? There are two parts to Bitcoin - some folks think it's a great store of value. I do not. I think it's an amazing decentralized transaction system that can replace VISA/MC - not replace the US Treasury.
    - lsadam0 10y ago
      If I sell a good or service to a resident of China, in CHY, and then convert CHY to USD....the CHY has failed? I don't understand the need to require a business to hold the bitcoin in order to consider bitcoin a "success". In this scenario bitcoin has succeeded as being a cheap method of transferring value.
- rglullis 10y ago
  Conversely, someone in Argentina or Venezuela doesn't deal with any (government-controlled) USD. Why is that so hard for Americans to understand?
  - aliakhtar 10y ago
    Please stop using us non americans as your justification for bitcoin. I live in Pakistan, and happily and easily use a visa debit card for buying steam games.
    - rglullis 10y ago
      Somehow it seems you are offended. Why? You may even use Visa, still doesn't mean that you are dealing with US dollars. Why do you think is it completely normal to have Visa as being a global country dealing with the cross-country transactions, but not Bitpay? If you have access to the international banking system, great. It is not a bad thing. Just like it is not a bad thing to have bitcoin as an alternative. The one thing that I don't get, anytime that Bitcoin comes here, is that people seem to think that it is an either/or proposition. That for Bitcoin to be usable it needs to completely replace the Almighty US Dollar or any other sovereign currency. Cryptocurrencies and the blockchain are just tools that are being explored and developed as a way to bring trust to transactions and accounting without a central authority. What is bad about that? We don't need to have Central Banks. "Us non-Americans" don't need to use American Institutions to participate in a global economy. This idea of "I can pay with Visa, therefore Bitcoin is useless" is short-sighted.
      - nekopa 10y ago
        I saw this a little differently. Not so much that bit coin is useless. He seemed to argue against using his country as an argument. You framed it as "I can pay with Visa..." I think you may have projected your argument onto his statement with no real correlation.
        rglullis 10y ago

Honestly, why do you care what Valve does with the BTC? If people want to use it, so be it. The backend isn't your concern.

by lsadam0 10y ago

Honestly, why do you care what Valve does with the BTC? If people want to use it, so be it. The backend isn't your concern.

joosters 10y ago

Valve doesn't handle any bit coins.

ThatPlayer 10y ago
How do you know that? Bitpay allows you to keep a percentage as Bitcoins rather than converting them all to USD.
lsadam0 10y ago
Ok, so? Bitcoin is an accepted payment method. Why should you care how exactly they handle processing of it? The only measure of success here is how much people do or do not use it. Are you honestly trying to argue against their acceptance by nitpicking the details of the backend implementation? 99.9% of people don't care.
- k33n 10y ago
  It read to me as questioning the value of BTC since neither Bitpay or Valve are interested in holding BTC themselves.
  - lsadam0 10y ago
    That would not change my stance.
  - statoshi 10y ago
    It should be quite clear that in this particular instance, Valve has decided that Bitcoin has utility as a transfer of value. You're questioning whether or not Bitcoin has utility as a store of value / unit of account. It appears that to Valve it does not, but there is also a chicken/egg issue with bootstrapping a new currency given that Bitcoin doesn't have sufficient adoption yet to complete a full lifecycle in terms of usage. That is - Valve has no use in holding bitcoins because they can't use them to pay their bills. This may change at some point.
  - ok_craig 10y ago
    At this point there are many people who simply have bitcoin. Maybe they bought it a long time ago, maybe they bought it recently. The acquisition time isn't really a factor anymore, it's been around long enough that people simply have it, and they would like to be able to spend it directly. There are not many people specifically acquiring bitcoin just to pay for steam games with it, where it will be converted right back. Maybe some to test. Questioning the value as a result of the "usd -> btc -> usd" transfer isn't really applicable because it just generally doesn't apply anymore.
- enraged_camel 10y ago
  >>The only measure of success here is how much people do or do not use it. No, that's your only measure of success. In order for Bitcoin to succeed as a viable payment platform, businesses also need to adopt it wholly, which means actually conducting business in Bitcoin rather than converting it to a "real" currency as soon as possible. Basically, if they are treating it as hot potato, that means they see it as too unstable and risky.
  - phil21 10y ago
    > Basically, if they are treating it as hot potato, that means they see it as too unstable and risky. Eh, I'm not so sure. You are probably right, but at the same time they probably want USD for the same reason they get USD from Paypal or their merchant bank when someone pays in a different currency. Is Paypal not a viable payment platform? There are two parts to Bitcoin - some folks think it's a great store of value. I do not. I think it's an amazing decentralized transaction system that can replace VISA/MC - not replace the US Treasury.
  - lsadam0 10y ago
    If I sell a good or service to a resident of China, in CHY, and then convert CHY to USD....the CHY has failed? I don't understand the need to require a business to hold the bitcoin in order to consider bitcoin a "success". In this scenario bitcoin has succeeded as being a cheap method of transferring value.
rglullis 10y ago
Conversely, someone in Argentina or Venezuela doesn't deal with any (government-controlled) USD. Why is that so hard for Americans to understand?
- aliakhtar 10y ago
  Please stop using us non americans as your justification for bitcoin. I live in Pakistan, and happily and easily use a visa debit card for buying steam games.
  - rglullis 10y ago
    Somehow it seems you are offended. Why? You may even use Visa, still doesn't mean that you are dealing with US dollars. Why do you think is it completely normal to have Visa as being a global country dealing with the cross-country transactions, but not Bitpay? If you have access to the international banking system, great. It is not a bad thing. Just like it is not a bad thing to have bitcoin as an alternative. The one thing that I don't get, anytime that Bitcoin comes here, is that people seem to think that it is an either/or proposition. That for Bitcoin to be usable it needs to completely replace the Almighty US Dollar or any other sovereign currency. Cryptocurrencies and the blockchain are just tools that are being explored and developed as a way to bring trust to transactions and accounting without a central authority. What is bad about that? We don't need to have Central Banks. "Us non-Americans" don't need to use American Institutions to participate in a global economy. This idea of "I can pay with Visa, therefore Bitcoin is useless" is short-sighted.
    - nekopa 10y ago
      I saw this a little differently. Not so much that bit coin is useless. He seemed to argue against using his country as an argument. You framed it as "I can pay with Visa..." I think you may have projected your argument onto his statement with no real correlation.
      - rglullis 10y ago