The problem is that transaction costs are often higher than the price of the game itself.
Can Bitcoin still be used for transactions, or are cryptocurrencies just a speculative tool? The change in the price of the virtual currency, just over $15,000 (€12,700) on Thursday, December 7, has in any case decided that the American company Valve will no longer accept it as a means of payment.
The publisher of the Steam online store, a major platform for selling and downloading PC video games, announced Wednesday that transaction fees will no longer allow it to accept cryptocurrency payments.
For every transaction, the Bitcoin network charges customers a fee. Last week, when we introduced bitcoin [as a payment method], the fee would be $20 (or 17 euros) “relative to $0.20 [or 17 cents],” the publisher explained.
fluctuate too fast
Valve also pointed out another limitation of Bitcoin payments: It’s a process that can evolve so quickly that the value of a customer’s “basket” may be verified with him the moment he transfers the amount of Bitcoin needed for the payment ‘s transaction.
“Generally, to fix this, we either have to refund the original payment to the user, or ask them to transfer additional funds to cover the full purchase price. In both cases, the user finds himself charged again for processing by the Bitcoin network [And he] risks the transaction failing again if the value of bitcoin fluctuates too much while the bitcoin network processes new transfers.»
This equates to the $20 cost that must be paid to the Bitcoin network to buy a video game, which typically costs between 5 and 60 euros.
