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> Steam back in the day used to accept 0 confirmation bitcoin spends. This means that the transaction has been gossiped on the bitcoin p2p network but had not y

> Steam back in the day used to accept 0 confirmation bitcoin spends. This means that the transaction has been gossiped on the bitcoin p2p network but had not yet been mined into a block and thus had minimal finality guarantees. Why? Why would anyone ever accept this?

philsquared_ 5y ago
Because I am pretty sure it isn't true. I am one of the few people who used bitcoin on steam during this time and I don't remember it ever being instant. I would like to see clarification to the top point because I don't think it is true... In my opinion when he says "fraudulent" he is probably talking about how people would use it to avoid bans. Steam would track banned users that remake accounts by checking their CC. They would also verify the people by making sure the address on the CC was close or the same to the address on the account. With Bitcoin you could avoid any tracking from remaking an account which leads to more 'bad actors' using Bitcoin. For reference you needed to spend something like $5 - $10 to enable trading on the platform. From their people would phish, scam, and break the TOS on the account.
- doomroot 5y ago
  I used bitcoin all the time on steam and there was a time when they were using 1 conf but the majority of the time they used 0 conf with bitpay. Couldn't find anything official with a quick goog but here is a reddit comment from 5years ago corroborating 0 confs on steam: https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/6arpvq/comment/dhgv3dq/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3 https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/6arpvq/comment/dhg...
  - philsquared_ 5y ago
    It is possible I am incorrect then. I remember it always taking 5 - 10 minutes before any funds hit my account. I never actually counted the confirmations so it is very possible I am just wrong and they were doing 0 conf. At the same time I am surprised BitPay would have been structured this way and not experience a major attack...
CyberDildonics 5y ago
Because they can revoke your game from your steam account if the transaction doesn't get picked up.
- sidewndr46 5y ago
  Alright, that is a point I did not consider. This makes me feel that it is difficult to use Bitcoin for expedient transactions, due to the fact that you'd need to put high fees on each transaction.

philsquared_ 5y ago

Because I am pretty sure it isn't true. I am one of the few people who used bitcoin on steam during this time and I don't remember it ever being instant. I would like to see clarification to the top point because I don't think it is true... In my opinion when he says "fraudulent" he is probably talking about how people would use it to avoid bans. Steam would track banned users that remake accounts by checking their CC. They would also verify the people by making sure the address on the CC was close or the same to the address on the account. With Bitcoin you could avoid any tracking from remaking an account which leads to more 'bad actors' using Bitcoin. For reference you needed to spend something like $5 - $10 to enable trading on the platform. From their people would phish, scam, and break the TOS on the account.

doomroot 5y ago
I used bitcoin all the time on steam and there was a time when they were using 1 conf but the majority of the time they used 0 conf with bitpay. Couldn't find anything official with a quick goog but here is a reddit comment from 5years ago corroborating 0 confs on steam: https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/6arpvq/comment/dhgv3dq/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3 https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/6arpvq/comment/dhg...
- philsquared_ 5y ago
  It is possible I am incorrect then. I remember it always taking 5 - 10 minutes before any funds hit my account. I never actually counted the confirmations so it is very possible I am just wrong and they were doing 0 conf. At the same time I am surprised BitPay would have been structured this way and not experience a major attack...

CyberDildonics 5y ago

Because they can revoke your game from your steam account if the transaction doesn't get picked up.

sidewndr46 5y ago
Alright, that is a point I did not consider. This makes me feel that it is difficult to use Bitcoin for expedient transactions, due to the fact that you'd need to put high fees on each transaction.