Starting the year below USD1,000, cryptocurrency Bitcoin now breaches USD14,000. Its meteoric rise especially in the latter half of 2017, is great news for investors, but its volatility is a double-edged sword. Companies that use Bitcoin for transactions, for instance, may find its price fluctuations too much to bear.
One such company is Valve, which has accepted Bitcoin as a payment method on leading gaming platform Steam. As of today, Steam no longer supports the cryptocurrency as a payment method.
Steam cites the increase in the volatility in the value of Bitcoin and the significant increase in transaction fees as reasons for the change.
Transaction fees that are charged to the customer by the Bitcoin network has skyrocketed to close to USD20 per transaction, compared to just USD0.20 when they first supported the digital currency.
The increase in transaction fees translate to unreasonably high costs for purchasing games.
As Bitcoin’s value is only guaranteed for short periods when making purchases, the value may be significantly different from when the transaction was started, and when a transaction completes.
The normal resolution is to either refund the original payment to the user, or ask the user to cover the remaining balance. In both instances, the user is hit with a Bitcoin network transaction fee again.
Steam says it will re-evaluate the viability of Bitcoin as a payment option in the future.
VIA Slashgear | Header pic: Bitcoin.com
