Steam no longer supports Bitcoin as a payment method

Valve has announced on Steam that the platform will no longer support Bitcoin as a payment method. the main reason behind this step is “high fees and volatility” in its value.

In the past few months we’ve seen an increase in the volatility in the value of Bitcoin and a significant increase in the fees to process transactions on the Bitcoin network.” says Valve. The main idea seems to be to protect the users from spending more than they should spend. Valve continues: “For example, 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 (compared to roughly $0.20 when we initially enabled Bitcoin). Unfortunately, Valve has no control over the amount of the fee. These fees result in unreasonably high costs for purchasing games when paying with Bitcoin. The high transaction fees cause even greater problems when the value of Bitcoin itself drops dramatically.

The exchange rate and the rapidly changing value of the digital currency make it unreliable for both Valve and the customer. to explain the situation, Valve says: “When checking out on Steam, a customer will transfer x amount of Bitcoin for the cost of the game, plus y amount of Bitcoin to cover the transaction fee charged by the Bitcoin network. The value of Bitcoin is only guaranteed for a certain period of time so if the transaction doesn’t complete within that window of time, then 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.

Another big problem is that even if the user wants to have a refund, they also have to pay the Bitcoin fee in order to do so. Or, alternatively, if the user wants to cover the missing money due to the transaction difference, he/she will also have to pay the same Bitcoin fee.

At this point, it has become untenable to support Bitcoin as a payment option. We may re-evaluate whether Bitcoin makes sense for us and for the Steam community at a later date.” says Valve and announces that they will look into this matter. But currently, Bitcoin will not be a valid payment method for Steam users.

Stay tuned for more!

Leave a reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

More in:News

0 %