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I never thought I’d hear myself say this, but can Steam just accept Bitcoin?

mrguyorama 1y ago
Steam DID accept bitcoins for like a year. They shut it down because of high fees, volatility, and because nobody actually buys things with bitcoins
- linotype 1y ago
  Sounds like there may be no other option for some soon.
  - 0cf8612b2e1e 1y ago
    I would buy a Steam gift card from a Walgreens/Target/whatever before I would deal with the hassle of Bitcoin.
  - immibis 1y ago
    Of course there will. Monero, Ethereum, USDC... All of which do a better job as currencies than Bitcoin does.
    - Melonai 1y ago
      Well, XMR is sadly "problematic" now, because the usual flock of EU politicians panicked about not being able to track those transactions as nicely as they can with Bitcoin, Ether & Co. Since then it's not quite easy to acquire anything through Monero, nor to obtain any XMR, here. Which is such a shame considering it was by far my favorite crypto. :( It's also, interestingly, a coin that seems to mostly resist the constant hunt for investment opportunities that befell most other "coins", hindering the ability to actually use them for normal human transactions. The Solana chain and SOL also seem to do an okay-ish job at being more like a "currency" you actually buy stuff with, but not too many things accept it. But by technical standards and my preferences nothing well-known even comes close to Monero.
  - zdp7 1y ago
    Bitcoin cannot handle Steam's transactions per second. When I got my Steam Deck, it took me 15 minutes to complete my purchase. Off the top of my head, I think I was about 130,000 in the queue.
elpocko 1y ago
They did for a while. https://www.pcgamer.com/50-of-transactions-were-fraudulent-when-steam-accepted-bitcoin-for-payments-says-gabe-newell/ https://www.pcgamer.com/50-of-transactions-were-fraudulent-w...
paradox460 1y ago
A "better" solution (and the term better is doing a lot of heavy lifting here) is to implement something like steam points, akin to what Microsoft did 20 years ago for the Xbox. Now payment processors just see people paying for steam points, not what's actually being purchased. There's no need for it to be distributed or any of the other aspects of crypto, steam is the issuing and accepting authority, and no one else matters, as far as steam is concerned
- Arrowmaster 1y ago
  They literally already do this but without the points nonsense.

Steam DID accept bitcoins for like a year. They shut it down because of high fees, volatility, and because nobody actually buys things with bitcoins

linotype 1y ago
Sounds like there may be no other option for some soon.
- 0cf8612b2e1e 1y ago
  I would buy a Steam gift card from a Walgreens/Target/whatever before I would deal with the hassle of Bitcoin.
- immibis 1y ago
  Of course there will. Monero, Ethereum, USDC... All of which do a better job as currencies than Bitcoin does.
  - Melonai 1y ago
    Well, XMR is sadly "problematic" now, because the usual flock of EU politicians panicked about not being able to track those transactions as nicely as they can with Bitcoin, Ether & Co. Since then it's not quite easy to acquire anything through Monero, nor to obtain any XMR, here. Which is such a shame considering it was by far my favorite crypto. :( It's also, interestingly, a coin that seems to mostly resist the constant hunt for investment opportunities that befell most other "coins", hindering the ability to actually use them for normal human transactions. The Solana chain and SOL also seem to do an okay-ish job at being more like a "currency" you actually buy stuff with, but not too many things accept it. But by technical standards and my preferences nothing well-known even comes close to Monero.
- zdp7 1y ago
  Bitcoin cannot handle Steam's transactions per second. When I got my Steam Deck, it took me 15 minutes to complete my purchase. Off the top of my head, I think I was about 130,000 in the queue.

elpocko 1y ago

They did for a while. https://www.pcgamer.com/50-of-transactions-were-fraudulent-when-steam-accepted-bitcoin-for-payments-says-gabe-newell/ https://www.pcgamer.com/50-of-transactions-were-fraudulent-w...

paradox460 1y ago

A "better" solution (and the term better is doing a lot of heavy lifting here) is to implement something like steam points, akin to what Microsoft did 20 years ago for the Xbox. Now payment processors just see people paying for steam points, not what's actually being purchased. There's no need for it to be distributed or any of the other aspects of crypto, steam is the issuing and accepting authority, and no one else matters, as far as steam is concerned

Arrowmaster 1y ago
They literally already do this but without the points nonsense.