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Comment on Steam payment headaches grow as PayPal is no longer usable for much of the world: Valve hopes to bring it back in the future, 'but the timeline is uncertain'

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Nindelofocho@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

How does using a cryptocurrency work in this instance? Does a game that costs 20 coins always cost 20 coins or is it going to be 10 one day and 60 the next depending on its value? If it stays at 20 coins are those 20 coins going to cost me 1% of my paycheck one day and then 3% the next? (Numbers just for example) Theres so many issues with just having to deal with another currency not just crypto. How can you guarantee its stability in relation to your original currency? How much are you going to have to spend to convert currencies and/or make transactions?

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Jack_Burton@lemmy.ca ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Stablecoins like USDC are basically x coins is the cost. It’s pegged to the US dollar so 1 USDC is equal to $1 USD, always. Something like Bitcoin on the other hand, it’s better to think of it as it’s own currency. For example, right now the equivalent to $20 USD would be 0.00016962 BTC. When BTC goes up in price, $20 USD costs fewer Bitcoins (sats, which are everything passed the decimal).

The real world equivalent would be exchange rates, like between the US and Canada. Say the rate is 1.33, so that $20 USD game would cost $26.60 CAD. The rate changes to 1.35, so now it costs you $27. Next week it dips to 1.28, so now that $20 USD game costs $25.60 CAD.

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spicehoarder@lemmy.zip ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Those are all really good questions, I don’t really know the answer to. Not all coins have the wild spikes like bitcoin. Monero has been fairly stable. I haven’t listened a game before, but I’m pretty sure you can pick which currency you want to get paid in. The conversion rates would be roughly the same for crypto.

However, Valve is no stronger to imaginary digital assets that wildly fluxuate in real world value. If there was any company that could figure out how to process crypto I think it would be them.

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- NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  They know exactly how to do it as they did it before but had to stop because the bitcoin network was artificially congested and it caused failed transactions or multi hour long transactions where the price dramatically changed. This resulted in complicated refunds or delays which resulted in unhappy customers.
  
  They can avoid that all now by simply accepting stable coins like USDC. For every issued usdc there is 1 usd in a bank account somewhere. The value barely fluctuates. There are networks that can handle the volume this would create without getting congested nowadays as well.
  
  Given the mess that happened last time though I imagine they are highly reluctant, although this could be enough motivation.
  
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dreadbeef@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Some crypto are called stablecoins, which are backed by some currency (such as the USD for USDC) inside of a bank. There’s a bit more to it than that, but effectively what you get is one coin = one unit of currency.

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- NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  They could even issue their own stable coin if they were weary of being reliant on another. I think valve would be viewed as trustworthy in keeping the 1:1 backing in a bank account.
  
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