mbmott

Princeton prof ARVIND NARAYANAN - wrote an excellent introductory book on Bitcoin.

https://freedom-to-tinker.com/blog/randomwalker/the-princeto...

Bitcoin definitely attracts fraud, but it's also teaching many people an important lesson in trust. Trust code and math as these things are ultimately verifiable.

What is "valid payment data"? How do they validate this data?

You need to have a valid payment method. I'm not sure how better to explain this... a credit card or paypal account etc. It's validated when the payment clears. Both of these have strong identity data linked to them.

KYC (Know your customer) / AML (Anti Money Laundering) compliance means validating the identities of those you do business with. That means, using Steam to launder money isn't possible. This should be pretty obvious.

Bitcoin's utility is being a global currency.

Like I said, Bitcoin will scale like the internet scaled which is in direct proportion to demand. Blocks aren't often full and if you are in a hurry then you need to pay 10 or 20 cents to prioritize your transaction.

That was pretty much my point. Bitcoin has a solid use case (being a global currency) and Steam is exploiting it.

I call it a DOS attack because blocks aren't regularly full anymore and the transaction data showed that the flood of transactions were "peeling chains", meaning they mostly had the same source. There is blockchain data to back this up.

The blocksize hasn't been increased yet. It blew over due to wallets improving their fee support. If you are in a hurry and need quick confirmations you increase your fee by 10 cents, but if the transaction doesn't need priority you may wait for quite a while.

As far as I know you can't make a purchase without having valid payment data. There might be a work around, but probably not via Bitcoin payments. Bitpay is definitely subject to KYC / AML compliance.

This is a valid point, but there are far sharper criticisms out there than Mike Hearn's. I find that following the code and not the community is the way to go in Bitcoin-land.

I follow you guys. Looking forward to trying yours out!

The Bitcoin network works perfectly fine and always has. The issue you are referring to was during a DOS attack on the network, which still wasn't an issue if you paid slightly higher fees to prioritize your transaction. The developer split on the blocksize increase was pretty heated for a while, but has largely blown over due to Bitcoin still working and the sky refusing to fall as some predicted. However, scaling is still a major issue that some very smart people are working on.

I could see this as Steam testing the Bitcoin waters. Steam games created an entirely new market of digital items changing hands for real world money, and this is done globally across all currencies--bitcoin would be an ideal fit. I could also see value in using bitcoin to reward content creators (modders). Obviously this is crazy speculation, but seem to be solid use cases.

A $100 cellphone isn't a decentralized peer to peer network. You are comparing apples to nose-hairs. Bitcoin will scale in the same way the internet scaled... slowly and then suddenly.

Not the case. The bitcoin you paid in and the bitcoin refunded to you are tied directly to your real identity, so I'm not sure what value "laundering" would have. There are no dirty bitcoins--see the U.S. Gov sale of the Silk Road coins as proof of this.

Bitcoin does have mixing services that would "launder" or obfuscate the link between bitcoin and your real identity, which does provide value for some users.

It doesn't currently approach that balance, but there are plenty of initiatives that are in the concept stage that would go a long way.