Joining Bitpay, Steam and a few other companies who early on started using Bitcoin for payments, now even Microsoft stops using it due to high fees and volatility. Even though volatility is normal in all cryptocurrencies, the high price of Bitcoin and it's slow and expensive transactions are making it near impossible to use as a payment option.
This chart from blockchain.info shows the 7 day average cost in Bitcoin that was used to pay for transactions in the last few months:
In the meantime on the highly censured subreddit r/bitcoin it seems like moderators have stopped trying to figure out what fake news is and what isn't:
As Bitcoin is still facing the same problems for years of not being able to be used as a currency anymore, alternative currencies are eating up on it's marketcap daily and I don't see Bitcoin being on the top spot for much longer than Q1 or Q2.
I hope these companies haven't given up on cryptocurrencies in general and will look into using other ones in the future. How cool would it be if Steam accepted Steem. :)
Bitcoin is such a joke. They actually have a rainbow now for their fees! lol
https://dedi.jochen-hoenicke.de/queue/more/#2w
Anyway, Bitcoin is going to slowly die if they continue to do nothing. Lightning isn't going to do anything unless they raise the block size, because it has to be settled on the blockchain when transactions are done on Lightning(not to mention it costs money to setup a LN payment channel...).
A lot of the Bitcoin devs who are currently in power are not the ones who actually made Bitcoin to start with, just a bunch of morons. They cry that Bitcoin is being attacked by Bitcoin Cash, but the irony is that is the free market and people are voting with their wallets on what product they want.
It would be more hysterical if it wasn't so sad. Bitcoin space now is filled with a bunch of FOMOs(Fear Of Missing Out on profits). Ah well!
At least Bitcoin Cash is going strong(and ETH/Steemit!)
Bitcoin is stuck with a problem bitcoin let happen. Every other legitimate crypto has this problem solved in one way or another Bitcoin however is too afraid to move forward so they’re stuck dying.
Other cryptos such as Ethereum have scaling issues as well. Bitcoin still has brand recognition and first mover advantage. It will be difficult to overcome that at this stage. Especially as 90% of people invested in this space don’t care about the tech. It’s all about the speculation!
Plus the big miners love the fees... but the fees will kill it.
Yep, there’s too much self interest rather than the desire to improve the actual tech.
That is the same concern I have regarding the Lightning Network. The cost to set it up and settling the block back on the chain. Just a lot of uncertainty and doubt about Bitcoin's future overall.
Hmmmm
Exactly. Likely a slow and relatively painful death. But it is coming.
https://news.bitcoin.com/bitcoin-fees-are-falling-amidst-greater-segwit-adoption/
I agree with you about the FOMO people. they flock to Centralized services like CoinBase. When they get burned by the long time it takes to settle they cry. I built a Blockchain Accelerator for the Bitcoin ledger. When you use the Bitcoin Core Wallet on your computer it can take weeks to sync. A lot of times it is corrupt and does not work.
People then go to CoinBase or CoinDesk because they are afraid they will miss profits. I built a program that feeds the blocks to your wallet directly from an IBM Sphere server. Meaning you get all the blocks delivered from a private fiber channel. Instead of taking weeks it only takes a few hours.
I felt compelled to help people out. Once you have the decentralized wallet in sync you do not need the online wallets. Thus saving you from the $2.99 fee every time you do something in your wallet.
We created mini trading pools in private using our Bitcoin Core Wallets. There are only a few hundred of us. We have freedom of banks and third party wallets.
As for STEEM and STEEMIT I love it! I applied for the writers account way back when it was BETA. It took about a year to get accepted. Well worth the wait. I am looking forward to the introduction of video to Steemit. That will take a huge chunk out of YouTube.
Is this writers account the same one as you are using now? I signed up and only waited a day. Later I learned that there is a fee in creating a steemit account and that some people had to wait weeks until they got a confirmation email. A year seems really long.
@dtube is here! Upload video right now to the Steemit blockchain :) Decentralized video FTW!
Fuck "Bitcoin Hash".
It is a free market, if bitcoin can't survive against competing against other coins and it dies, then it dies.
Bitcoin is being sabbotaged slowly for years.
Very true, and if it does die off it wasn't as resilient as we were led to believe. There will be other coins.
I really doubt it will die, too many mobs into it :D and dark sides of govs. On the other hand they'd be better on xmr network.
Seems to me like more to it, if they've stopped accepting bitcoin, then somebody somewhere should have answers, it's not looking so good for Bitcoin
Thankfully there are real currencies and money like Bitcoin Cash and Steem that are doing great. Bitcoin Cash is Bitcoin. The Bitcoin I started invest in 2013.
I am looking forward to bitpay adding Bitcoin Cash like a child now.
I was trying to get my $1 worth of bitcoin out of my wallet and it said the minimum amount was 0.016845. There's going to be a lot of people that'll have to add more bitcoin just to get the rest of their bitcoin out.
Trying to purchase some altcoins with Bitcoin is ridiculous. At some points, the transaction fee was $15 for $200 transfer on Coinbase!
Bitcoin is the first, that's really what they have going for them. I see them getting knocked off as #1 pretty soon too. Hey Microsoft, Steem has FREE transactions. Just sayin'!
online earn money from bitcoine very best platfrom
Thanks for the post @acidyo.
I do not see then giving up on crypto simply for the fact that we are going to see it in the hands of so many in the future. We are entering the Cryptocurrency 2.0 realm which is a different arena than what we are use to. People are going to be accumulating 25-50 tokens in a few years doing the things they are doing now...just they will be compensated.
For this reason, companies will accept cryptocurrencies of all different kinds. Personally, I believe that there will need to be some way to seamlessly exchange different tokens...I have a feeling the wallets will do this coupled with some type of atomic swap system.
Back to bitcoin, it amazes me that with all the developers on the bitcoin blockchain, they havent solved the basic problems they are operating under. You would think that they could figure it out. I believe they will...it just might be at a time after Bitcoin lost its position on top.
OH NOES HOW CAN THIS HAPPEN
News, news, what to listen now ?
Bitcoin definitely needs to figure it all out! I saw a tweet earlier saying there were 141,000 transactions that were unconfirmed. Bitshares would be able to process all of these in less than 1 minute. Whenever I see "Steam" I double take and make sure I am reading about the correct one! :D
this could be huge for steem! I think alot of money will flow into alts!
This is unfortunately a step backwords.
But don't mind, it will go in one direction!
Your last sentence hits the point.
They just prepare for our beloved steem ;-)
I don't use bitcoin anymore. only as a conversion pair if I need it. I use dogecoin now to transfer money between exchanges, with the exception of LTC or ETH if I want to cash out.
I feel that Bitcoin could become overtaken by XRP or XLM in the future. We shall see.
anything but xrp, XMR come on folks.
FUCK XRP FUCK XRP FUCK XRP
Steem better solve all the node issues they have been having last few days and get act together so that it can act as an alternative to slow grand dad btc.
Volatility is one thing but the high fees are definitely a pain in the butt. It would be interesting if companies like Microsoft started learning about other cryptocurrencies aside from Bitcoin.
@acidyo I am Grateful I do not own any Bitcoin right now. This will be interesting to see how the Coinmarketcap will change if another coin takes the Top Spot. I am not Anti Bitcoin in the least, it is just going to be a Rocky Road in 2018.......
@acidyo knowing you been a lot longer in crypto then me after reading this post I am very much going to move more of my portfolio out of btc and into altcoins. I have been watching btc's overall market share deteriorate and recently it has drop a lot. It certainly seems the btc's top spot is very vulnerable. Thanks.
BTC is destined for the dust heap. They have been too slow to react and will not be able to recover now.
Hopefully steem will get there someday
a hard choice for a company to accept payments through bitcoin, in because bitcoins that have unstable prices. different from the dollar or euro.
on the one hand crypto is currently taking over the role of currency as a means of payment, they judge crypto to have a bright future that has a free nature and nothing set for its price other than the buyer and seller of bitcoin itself.
i think litecoin wil be great to use as payment currency. And maybe ripple
I dont see peole given up on bitcoin yet.The trending down is normal of any cryptocurency or any currency at all.Bitcoin just started growing.
if we want it to be more useful
these costs need to be reduced
@acidyo
@acidyo The BTC network is getting too obsolete, high fees, really long confirmation times. The Steem blockchain though?? How much more advanced technically actually is! I believe in the near future Steem will get what it deserves! Recognition, adoption and investors! Let's hope for it!
That's kind of interesting, as I used Bitcoin just a moment ago to buy myself some things (hardware wallets) and the payments were almost instantaneous.
What was the transaction fee you paid?
Um... about 1mBTC. I guess that's a bit steep, but I was in a hurry and it was what the wallet suggested I use so...
Bitcoin fees will get someone cancer...
Noo, bitcoin is not going anywhere. There is a reason for it to be so expensive. I’m not bitcoin holder but you have to be naive to think that some penny crypto would possibly surpass it.
Bitcoin was created to work outside the national currencies, which is an ideal solution for people who do not trust central banks.In this case, the eyes are shifting to other crypto currencies that are scraping the barriers of Bitcoin. According to many experts, Bitcoin is an experimental quality for the economic system of the future. Other crypto currencies, or crypto-currencies that countries have issued with their own names, can actually bring about the end of physical money.. @acidyo
Bitcoin Cash would be a nice alternative I believe.
The Best Post.. My reestem and upvote.
It would be very cool if Steam accepted Steem! Combining two of my favourite things!
Fee's are getting high for it, but I don't think we should worry much, thanks for sharing and keeping us updated. :) Steem On!
From what I understand, Bitcoin is like DOS, newer ones often have better operating systems that are easier to build other applications on. I'm trying to tell people, the early adapters of Bitcoin were not investing in Bitcoin, they were investing in blockchain tech. Invest in the technology, not the coin. Am I crazy?lol
Yeah. It's time to use STEEM instead
Using bitcoin as alternative, maybe companies are starting to wonder why they don't implement earlier. Well it maybe late cause bitcoin fee is very high. Buying a 5 dollar and cause a trans of 13 dollar, not worth man.
Yes, it's a good idea @ if steam receives steam it will be useful again. thanks.
BTC's high fees and slow transaction times do not bode well for its future. While I think it is still a good investment in the short term, long term might be a different story if it does not adapt!
There is a saying, if one door is closed god opens the other. If Microsoft company refuse to accept bitcoin as transaction, it will definitely search for ohere options, if it happens if steem will be the other ones than? Thanks for sharing such a beautiful poem, have a great day friend happy steeming.
Lulz. Can't say I'm surprised though. I think once altcoins become more well known/accepted we'll see more companies adapting them into their infrastructure. Also, that BTC subreddit is shit.
I hope Steem and SBD can be used soon. Thank you for sharing this @acidyo! :)
Looks like bitcoin is finally going to die! Its time for the altcoins to rise! 2018 is the year of altcoins.
Yep! Bitcoin has hardly turned out to be the fiat-replacement, day-to-day currency that we probably all thought we'd be using. I'd hate to buy a cup of coffee for a few bucks, pay a $27 transaction fee, and stand there (6) hours until it's confirmed! lol
Honestly, after looking into the Lightning Network further, I'm not sure that's the answer. Blockstream, the company providing the sidechain "solutions," stands to be right in the middle of the big bucks! This isn't looking so well.
Honestly, I think Bitcoin will continue on, even will impressive gains, as what many are touting it to be, digital gold. Probably a good investment to hold, if you already have it, or probably still good to get into, as long as you don't plan on spending it.
There's other digital assets that look like they'll be fine as a general use currency though. I'm liking Litecoin for one, but there are even others with low, or NO transaction fees. I'm thinking Monero will have a future also, for those that want privacy. Evidently, many do. I got into Monero at $86.xx, and it was well over $400.xx, the last time I looked.
Me, I'm gonna start focusing more on Steem, and just a few alt-coins.
Thanks for your post.
Steem and STEEM dollars will soon take over from bitcoin
base the reason, may be MS is right, this information should be response by bitcoin.
Due to high fees in bitcoin many companies who accepted it as a means of payment will have no choice but to abandon the coin, I feel this is the start of the downfall of bitcoin. Many coins like Ethereum, ripple and some other Altcoins posses the features which bitcoin lacks, I see these coins surpassing bitcoin on the market cap, it’s only a matter of time as companies/banks will look into other coins with much better accommodation, capabilities and the rest. Between thanks for the information
Do you think Ethereum would be the next one taking over, solving all payment problems associated with Bitcoin? If not, which one do you think?
Like everyone says, because of the transaction cost and process time, this is going to turn into the gold of crypto where it has 0 use but super high value.
it takes a while to get the ripples