As of Dec. 7, popular online game store Steam will no longer be accepting payments with Bitcoin. They reasoned that the value of the said cryptocurrency has been extremely volatile recently. They deem that the frequent fluctuations make Bitcoin an unviable payment method.
Steam stated in an official blog post that they have 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." They noted that Bitcoin lost 25 percent of its value in some days.
They also mentioned the potentially exorbitant amount of transaction fees that players have to pay when they use Bitcoin.
Transaction fees paid to the Bitcoin network cost around $0.20 when Steam first enabled the payment method. Today, transaction fees cost around $20. Buyers have to shoulder this expense on top of a game's regular price, too.
Steam said that this results in "unreasonably high" prices for when buying games with Bitcoin. They have also expressed that they have no control over this value.
Furthermore, they said that frequent fluctuations in the value of Bitcoin make transactions unnecessarily more unstable.
For example, the buyer transfers Bitcoins equivalent to the price of the game, plus the transaction that mentioned the above fee. If the Bitcoin value fluctuates anytime before the operation is finished, the amount paid may end up being greater or lesser than the actual total cost to be paid.
One of two things can happen in this scenario. Either Steam refunds the excess payment, or the player transfers additional funds if the initial amount ends up being short.
However, in any of the two options, the user again has to pay a transaction fee. This could lead to even more problems if the Bitcoin value fluctuates again during the second transaction.
Steam is currently cleaning up outstanding transaction problems with Bitcoin but is not accepting the payment method anymore. They said that they would "re-evaluate" if the payment method becomes viable again.
