Bitcoin is causing too many complications for Valve, so the company has announced that it will no longer accept the digital cryptocurrency. Valve runs Steam, which is the the biggest PC-gaming distribution platform outside of China, and it started taking Bitcoin as a payment in April 2016 after talking about the possibility for years. But high fees and the roller coaster market value have convinced Valve to give it up as a viable alternative to traditional payment methods.
In a blog post, Valve engineer Kurtis Chinn lays out its reasons for ditching Bitcoin.
“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,” wrote Chinn. “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 20 cents when we initially enabled Bitcoin.
”Transaction fees are a part of doing business, but typically Visa or MasterCard charge businesses for every purchase made with one of their cards. Those fees are never more than a couple of bucks. For Bitcoin, however, the cryptocurrency market takes a fee when a Bitcoin owner initiates a transaction. This can add significant cost to a standard purchase of a digital game.
“Unfortunately, Valve has no control over the amount of the fee,”…
The post Steam drops Bitcoin support due to volatility and $20 transaction fees appeared first on FeedBox.