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Stripe is Dropping Bitcoin Support

posted by Fnord666 on Thursday January 25 2018, @12:43AM   Printer-friendly
from the and-so-it-goes dept.

canopic jug writes:

The payment service, Stripe, has ended its support for Bitcoin due to rising transaction fees and long confirmation times. Particularly the latter contribute to failed transfers. So Bitcoin is over as an experiment, and more are realizing that. However, the expectation is that some other cryptocurrency will become widely used, eventually.

Therefore, starting today, we are winding down support for Bitcoin payments. Over the next three months we will work with affected Stripe users to ensure a smooth transition before we stop processing Bitcoin transactions on April 23, 2018.

Despite this, we remain very optimistic about cryptocurrencies overall. There are a lot of efforts that we view as promising and that we can certainly imagine enabling support for in the future.

[ TMB Note: Yes, this will absolutely break our ability to accept BitCoin. Again. Which is fine this time as BitCoin transaction fees are now as high as the minimum price for a year's subscription. If you have a preferred alternative that we can accept without actually touching cryptocurrency, drop the info in a comment. ]

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 25 2018, @01:48AM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 25 2018, @01:48AM (#627509)

    For any one that still reads Cringely, today's column is about Bitcoin, here is a cutting from the middle of the column:

    This is what makes Bitcoin a horrible investment but a wonderful trade, because there is money to be made in that inevitable volatility. Not only will what goes up come down again: it will also go back up again if you wait long enough.

    This is all because Bitcoin and similar currencies aren’t currencies at all but financial instruments. They are tools just like options or derivatives. And like good tools, they perform a specific function very well — reliably transferring value between parties without those parties having to meet or even know each other. But once that transfer is complete, then the true value of the Bitcoin has effectively been used and is therefore subject to change, which again explains the volatility.

    https://www.cringely.com/2018/01/24/prediction-4-bitcoin-crashes-booms-crashes-booms-2018-traders-figure-not-currency/ [cringely.com]

  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday January 25 2018, @05:47AM

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Thursday January 25 2018, @05:47AM (#627565) Journal

    And like good tools, they perform a specific function very well — reliably transferring value between parties without those parties having to meet or even know each other.

    That trade (though not to the degree of anonymity that Bitcoin allows for) is the primary purpose of a currency. Even a hyperinflating currency has some ability to do that.

  • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday January 25 2018, @06:19AM

    by FatPhil (863) <{pc-soylent} {at} {asdf.fi}> on Thursday January 25 2018, @06:19AM (#627572) Homepage
    "So the smart trader knows never to hold Bitcoins"

    If Cringely doesn't even know the lingo, then his arguments probably don't hodl much water.
    --
    Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 25 2018, @07:11AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 25 2018, @07:11AM (#627580)

    This is all because Bitcoin and similar currencies aren’t currencies at all but financial instruments. They are tools just like options or derivatives.

    Except they are not. Derivatives are derivatives *of* something, like some stock price or price of hogs. Bitcoin is not a derivative. It's even worse than VIX, as that is a measure of *something*. Bitcoin is just made up waste of time.