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They don't accept bitcoin directly, they instead accept fiat from Bitpay on behalf of people who wish to pay in bitcoin. It is an important distinction. On th

They don't accept bitcoin directly, they instead accept fiat from Bitpay on behalf of people who wish to pay in bitcoin. It is an important distinction. On the one hand this makes a lot of sense for Steam, it reduces the up-front overhead and risk of accepting digital currencies and I would imagine it offloads the onus of AML/KYC compliance to Bitpay. On the other hand it is hardly a ringing endorsement of bitcoin itself.

ThatPlayer 10y ago
BitPay also has the option to give you Bitcoins instead of fiat. (Or a percentage of each). We have no clue how much Steam is keeping in Bitcoins.
aedron 10y ago
It doesn't matter. I can pay with bitcoin on Steam. It makes bitcoin more fungible and thus viable as a currency. And for what it's worth, I find the bitcoin payment process immensely superior to credit cards: Just pull out the phone and scan the QR code on the screen. Screen updates to show payment was made. Love it. (Now, acquiring the bitcoins in the first place though...)
- hartpuff 10y ago
  > It doesn't matter. I can pay with bitcoin on Steam. I can pay with Dogecoin with one additional step. >It makes bitcoin more fungible and thus viable as a currency. Isn't using Bitpay just a way of exchanging bitcoin for dollars, while kidding yourself that's not what you're doing? > And for what it's worth, I find the bitcoin payment process immensely superior to credit cards: Just pull out the phone and scan the QR code on the screen. Screen updates to show payment was made. All that's left is to wait countless tedious hours for the funds to appear in the, for example, Namesilo account. It is easy (so is using a credit card), but it's almost uselessly slow (unlike credit cards). Edit: maybe this explains anti-Bitcoin sentiment. The fundamentalists can't handle any factual comments that aren't entirely about how game changing it is.
  - azernik 10y ago
    > Isn't using Bitpay just a way of exchanging bitcoin for dollars, while kidding yourself that's not what you're doing? That's fungibility. That's liquidity. A big marker of stability and legitimacy for a normal currency is that it's freely convertible. A parallel example: you can pay for stuff "in euros" on Paypal, but Steam likely only gets dollars. That's still good for the viability of the euro as a currency, because it can be easily exchanged for goods and services, even with a middleman.
    - hartpuff 10y ago
      The point is, unlike with Bitcoin, people with Euros do not have any significant ideological opposition towards dollars, or acquire Euros because they believe it is superior to or will one day replace dollars. > That's still good for the viability of the euro as a currency, because it can be easily exchanged for goods and services, even with a middleman. So it's good for Bitcoin in exactly the same way that it's good for Dogecoin, and other popular alts.
      - azernik 10y ago
        > The point is, unlike with Bitcoin, people with Euros do not have any significant ideological opposition towards dollars, or acquire Euros because they believe it is superior to or will one day replace dollars. And that's why it's a bit silly to have ideological positions about currencies :-P I'm just arguing that it is actually good for Bitcoin the currency, not that it's good for the bitcoiner ideology. > So it's good for Bitcoin in exactly the same way that it's good for Dogecoin, and other popular alts. Oh yeah, totally. It's good for the viability of blockchain currencies in general.
        hartpuff 10y ago
        > And that's why it's a bit silly to have ideological positions about currencies Indeed. I think Bitcoin would be given the time of day by a lot more people if there was a lot less political whackjobbery surrounding it, and more sane, informed discussion from people such as yourself.
aianus 10y ago
"They don't accept CNY directly, they instead accept USD from their merchant bank on behalf of people who wish to pay in CNY" This is a pointless distinction.
- wallacoloo 10y ago
  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.
  - aianus 10y ago
    > 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 for merchants than any foreign fiat currency does today. And even today, a ~1% Bitcoin processing fee is approximately 1/3 to 1/2 of what credit cards cost to process.
    - jzwinck 10y ago
      If there is no such thing as a forex exchange, what is this? http://www.hotspotfx.com/products/the_hotspot_ecn.jsp http://www.hotspotfx.com/products/the_hotspot_ecn.jsp

ThatPlayer 10y ago

BitPay also has the option to give you Bitcoins instead of fiat. (Or a percentage of each). We have no clue how much Steam is keeping in Bitcoins.

aedron 10y ago

It doesn't matter. I can pay with bitcoin on Steam. It makes bitcoin more fungible and thus viable as a currency. And for what it's worth, I find the bitcoin payment process immensely superior to credit cards: Just pull out the phone and scan the QR code on the screen. Screen updates to show payment was made. Love it. (Now, acquiring the bitcoins in the first place though...)

hartpuff 10y ago
> It doesn't matter. I can pay with bitcoin on Steam. I can pay with Dogecoin with one additional step. >It makes bitcoin more fungible and thus viable as a currency. Isn't using Bitpay just a way of exchanging bitcoin for dollars, while kidding yourself that's not what you're doing? > And for what it's worth, I find the bitcoin payment process immensely superior to credit cards: Just pull out the phone and scan the QR code on the screen. Screen updates to show payment was made. All that's left is to wait countless tedious hours for the funds to appear in the, for example, Namesilo account. It is easy (so is using a credit card), but it's almost uselessly slow (unlike credit cards). Edit: maybe this explains anti-Bitcoin sentiment. The fundamentalists can't handle any factual comments that aren't entirely about how game changing it is.
- azernik 10y ago
  > Isn't using Bitpay just a way of exchanging bitcoin for dollars, while kidding yourself that's not what you're doing? That's fungibility. That's liquidity. A big marker of stability and legitimacy for a normal currency is that it's freely convertible. A parallel example: you can pay for stuff "in euros" on Paypal, but Steam likely only gets dollars. That's still good for the viability of the euro as a currency, because it can be easily exchanged for goods and services, even with a middleman.
  - hartpuff 10y ago
    The point is, unlike with Bitcoin, people with Euros do not have any significant ideological opposition towards dollars, or acquire Euros because they believe it is superior to or will one day replace dollars. > That's still good for the viability of the euro as a currency, because it can be easily exchanged for goods and services, even with a middleman. So it's good for Bitcoin in exactly the same way that it's good for Dogecoin, and other popular alts.
    - azernik 10y ago
      > The point is, unlike with Bitcoin, people with Euros do not have any significant ideological opposition towards dollars, or acquire Euros because they believe it is superior to or will one day replace dollars. And that's why it's a bit silly to have ideological positions about currencies :-P I'm just arguing that it is actually good for Bitcoin the currency, not that it's good for the bitcoiner ideology. > So it's good for Bitcoin in exactly the same way that it's good for Dogecoin, and other popular alts. Oh yeah, totally. It's good for the viability of blockchain currencies in general.
      - hartpuff 10y ago
        > And that's why it's a bit silly to have ideological positions about currencies Indeed. I think Bitcoin would be given the time of day by a lot more people if there was a lot less political whackjobbery surrounding it, and more sane, informed discussion from people such as yourself.

aianus 10y ago

"They don't accept CNY directly, they instead accept USD from their merchant bank on behalf of people who wish to pay in CNY" This is a pointless distinction.

wallacoloo 10y ago
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.
- aianus 10y ago
  > 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 for merchants than any foreign fiat currency does today. And even today, a ~1% Bitcoin processing fee is approximately 1/3 to 1/2 of what credit cards cost to process.
  - jzwinck 10y ago
    If there is no such thing as a forex exchange, what is this? http://www.hotspotfx.com/products/the_hotspot_ecn.jsp http://www.hotspotfx.com/products/the_hotspot_ecn.jsp