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You can hear Steam's experience with bitcoin straight from the horse's mouth here: https://steamcommunity.com/games/593110/announcements/detail/1464096684955433

You can hear Steam's experience with bitcoin straight from the horse's mouth here: https://steamcommunity.com/games/593110/announcements/detail/1464096684955433613 https://steamcommunity.com/games/593110/announcements/detail... > transaction fees that are charged to the customer by the Bitcoin network have skyrocketed this year, topping out at close to $20 a transaction last week [...] The high transaction fees cause even greater problems when the value of Bitcoin itself drops dramatically. > [...] the amount of Bitcoin needed to cover the transaction can change. The amount it can change has been increasing recently to a point where it can be significantly different. > The normal resolution for this is to either refund the original payment to the user, or ask the user to transfer additional funds to cover the remaining balance. In both these cases, the user is hit with the [$20] Bitcoin network transaction fee again.

ronsor 1y ago
In practice, Bitcoin transaction fees are much lower nowadays. I've never spent more than $1.00 in fees on relatively large sums. Besides that, there are other cryptocurrencies (Solana? Stellar?) which have effectively zero fees and are much faster than Bitcoin.
- beeflet 1y ago
  Transaction fees are lower because no one really uses the L1 network for commerce anymore. It goes back to the 2017 block size war. >Besides that, there are other cryptocurrencies (Solana? Stellar?) which have effectively zero fees and are much faster than Bitcoin. They are faster because they are not very decentralized. The entry costs for vendors to independently audit and verify payments the blockchain is greater.
  - Spivak 1y ago
    Are there currencies you would actually do something with other than it being a way to move $local_currency by means of exchanges? Because I'm not sure it really solves anything when exchanges find themselves with the same regulations as Visa.
    - beeflet 1y ago
      Yeah, you have anonymous cryptocurrencies like monero or zcash. So I suppose you could accept payment in an anonymous cryptocurrency, and then take that to whatever exchange you want. It's flawed, but I think the end goal is to create a "circular economy" based on anonymous currrency, so you never have to cash out.
      - paulryanrogers 1y ago
        Won't that just push KYC onto merchants? People don't like it when crime pays (easily and well).
        beeflet 1y ago
        Not anymore than with cash.
        paulryanrogers 1y ago
        Isn't it more scalable than cash? Moving large amounts of cash is risky and hard to hide. It also offers the public a very easy to understand medium of exchange, which is why most consider it worth keeping despite its illicit use.
- JohnTHaller 1y ago
  This year to date, Bitcoin's transaction fees have ranged from $0.76 to $3.80 per transaction. Those are good fees if you're moving $10,000. On a $4 game I buy from my Steam wishlist, those are awful fees compared to the $0.19 that Steam would likely pay to their payment processor.
nicman23 1y ago
no that is at least 5 year old info. with lighting the fees are pennies on the dollar

ronsor 1y ago

In practice, Bitcoin transaction fees are much lower nowadays. I've never spent more than $1.00 in fees on relatively large sums. Besides that, there are other cryptocurrencies (Solana? Stellar?) which have effectively zero fees and are much faster than Bitcoin.

beeflet 1y ago
Transaction fees are lower because no one really uses the L1 network for commerce anymore. It goes back to the 2017 block size war. >Besides that, there are other cryptocurrencies (Solana? Stellar?) which have effectively zero fees and are much faster than Bitcoin. They are faster because they are not very decentralized. The entry costs for vendors to independently audit and verify payments the blockchain is greater.
- Spivak 1y ago
  Are there currencies you would actually do something with other than it being a way to move $local_currency by means of exchanges? Because I'm not sure it really solves anything when exchanges find themselves with the same regulations as Visa.
  - beeflet 1y ago
    Yeah, you have anonymous cryptocurrencies like monero or zcash. So I suppose you could accept payment in an anonymous cryptocurrency, and then take that to whatever exchange you want. It's flawed, but I think the end goal is to create a "circular economy" based on anonymous currrency, so you never have to cash out.
    - paulryanrogers 1y ago
      Won't that just push KYC onto merchants? People don't like it when crime pays (easily and well).
      - beeflet 1y ago
        Not anymore than with cash.
        paulryanrogers 1y ago
        Isn't it more scalable than cash? Moving large amounts of cash is risky and hard to hide. It also offers the public a very easy to understand medium of exchange, which is why most consider it worth keeping despite its illicit use.
JohnTHaller 1y ago
This year to date, Bitcoin's transaction fees have ranged from $0.76 to $3.80 per transaction. Those are good fees if you're moving $10,000. On a $4 game I buy from my Steam wishlist, those are awful fees compared to the $0.19 that Steam would likely pay to their payment processor.

nicman23 1y ago

no that is at least 5 year old info. with lighting the fees are pennies on the dollar