[2016-09-17] Steam Switched Back to Zero-Confirmation Bitcoin Transactions

snipie

legendary

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Quote from: 1Referee on September 17, 2016, 12:22:20 PM

Well, BitPay handles the incoming Bitcoin transactions from the beginning till the end. Steam has no saying in this process. Steam just receives a notification including the payment ID from BitPay as soon as the transaction is accepted from BitPay's side. From there Steam releases whatever item the person has bought.

Then bitpay has to be careful and for sure it will filter the incoming transactions as you said and divide it by their probability to confirm. I think it is still a risky adventure from their side

1Referee

legendary

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Quote from: snipie on September 17, 2016, 10:04:21 AM

Quote from: 1Referee on September 17, 2016, 03:44:46 AM

Even though they are now allowing zero confirmation transactions to come through, that doesn't mean that it will lead to instant purchases. BitPay places every incoming transaction in a certain category ranging from a potential double spend risk, to no double spend risk at all. It all depends on the fee that is included. If the fee is well below average, then they won't let the payment come through untill it has at least 1 confirmation, I am 100% sure of that.

Yes, i have exactly the same opinion here, otherwise in case of a double spend or any other cause that lead to reject the transaction then i think steam will interfere in some point to oblige the user to resend the payment..

Well, BitPay handles the incoming Bitcoin transactions from the beginning till the end. Steam has no saying in this process. Steam just receives a notification including the payment ID from BitPay as soon as the transaction is accepted from BitPay's side. From there Steam releases whatever item the person has bought.

snipie

legendary

Activity: 3178

Merit: 1140

#SWGT CERTIK Audited

Quote from: 1Referee on September 17, 2016, 03:44:46 AM

Even though they are now allowing zero confirmation transactions to come through, that doesn't mean that it will lead to instant purchases. BitPay places every incoming transaction in a certain category ranging from a potential double spend risk, to no double spend risk at all. It all depends on the fee that is included. If the fee is well below average, then they won't let the payment come through untill it has at least 1 confirmation, I am 100% sure of that.

Yes, i have exactly the same opinion here, otherwise in case of a double spend or any other cause that lead to reject the transaction then i think steam will interfere in some point to oblige the user to resend the payment..

1Referee

legendary

Activity: 2170

Merit: 1427

Even though they are now allowing zero confirmation transactions to come through, that doesn't mean that it will lead to instant purchases. BitPay places every incoming transaction in a certain category ranging from a potential double spend risk, to no double spend risk at all. It all depends on the fee that is included. If the fee is well below average, then they won't let the payment come through untill it has at least 1 confirmation, I am 100% sure of that.

Famnant

full member

Activity: 157

Merit: 100

"For now, it remains unclear as to what has caused this transaction confirmation switch. There was no official communication from either Steam or BitPay regarding this change.It is possible the company was experimenting with some settings, although it seems a bit odd to do so.

Requiring zero confirmations for transactions is often seen as a security risk. Bitcoin double spends may occur at any given time. This is why Steam has partnered with BitPay to process cryptocurrency payments. If a double-spend were executed, the payment processor would be responsible for any financial losses.

To be more precise, BitPay would be held responsible based on which risk settings Valve has set for the Steam platform. It is good to see the platform process Bitcoin payments quicker again. We can only hope to see some statistics regarding Bitcoin usage on the Steam platform in the future."

shane

hero member

Activity: 756

Merit: 503

For quite some time, the Steam platform insisted on having at least one Bitcoin network confirmation before a purchase would be completed. Albeit this is not a major issue for most people, it could take up to ten minutes until this happened. Keeping in mind how they rely on BitPay to process payments, this decision seemed a bit weird.

Lo and behold, things have shifted back to their standard procedure once again. Steam purchases are completed as soon as transactions hit the network, to much joy of Bitcoin community members. No one wanted to wait 10 minutes before a game starts downloading, a process that can take up quite some time as well.

http://themerkle.com/steam-switched-back-to-zero-confirmation-bitcoin-transactions/

Topic: [2016-09-17] Steam Switched Back to Zero-Confirmation Bitcoin Transactions (Read 474 times)