Why Steam Terminated Support For Bitcoin As Payment Method

Steam is no longer accepting Bitcoin as a payment method, saying it’s “untenable” to support the soaring cryptocurrency. However, Valve has admitted that it may re-evaluate its decision at a later date.

This Wednesday, Valve announced via Steam Blog that its digital distribution platform will henceforth not accept Bitcoin as payment for its content and services. The company cited the volatility in the value of the digital currency and high fees as the main reasons why it dropped support for Bitcoin.

“Historically, the value of Bitcoin has been volatile, but the degree of volatility has become extreme in the last few months, losing as much as 25 percent in value over a period of days,” Valve wrote. “This creates a problem for customers trying to purchase games with Bitcoin.”

Valve went on to explain that due to the volatility in the value of Bitcoin, there could be a significant difference in the amount that was paid by the consumer and the amount that will reach the company since it takes time to process transactions. This problem arises when a transaction is not completed within the period of time that the amount of Bitcoin paid is commensurate to the price of a game or a service offered on Steam’s Store.

Valve also tackled the issue with the increasing fees to process 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,” the company stated. “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.”

Aside from having no control over the amount of fees required to process Bitcoin, Valve fears that the high fees would be a serious problem for its consumers. “This year, we’ve seen increasing number of customers get into this slate. With the transaction fee being so high right now, it is not feasible to refund or ask the customer to transfer the missing balance (which itself runs the risk of underpayment again, depending on how much the value of Bitcoin changes while the Bitcoin network process the additional transfer.”

When Valve started to accept Bitcoin as a payment method last April, the value of the cryptocurrency was at $450, as pointed out by Ars Technica. Today, Bitcoin is surging past $12,000 per coin, so it may be a surprise for users to hear that Steam is removing support for the digital money. However, Valve’s decision is not only understandable, but something that’s for the good of both Steam and its clients. Besides, very few people user Bitcoin for everyday transactions because of the very slow processing speeds and high fees involved per transaction.

For those who are saddened by Valve’s decision though, the company did say that it may reconsider Bitcoin in the future. “We may re-evaluate whether Bitcoin makes sense for us and for the Steam community at a later date.” For now, it is focused on resolving pending issues for clients affected by existing underpayments or high transaction fees.