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Adult game developer’s PayPal funds held for over a month despite being legitimately sold on Steam [80k GBP]
(www.gamepressure.com)
this post was submitted on 26 Aug 2025
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Bitcoin and Monero fixes this!
Oh boy, less accountability!
All transactions are public and verifiable. How is that less accountability?
And what recourse do you have?
The same as paypal, but you'll have more freedom & responsibility, since You ARE the bank now
More than using Paypal, obviously. Depending on the amount, you can take them to small claims court, or get lawyers involved for larger sums. The great thing is that they cannot claim you didn't pay, and you have proof of services rendered, or products purchased. And if you don't trust the merchant, don't buy from them.
LOL. You've done this, I presume?
Yes, in fact I use the Lightning Network almost daily.
That's a weird name for a small claims court.
I've never had to take any company to court, because we have consumer protections. That covers purchases with crypto.
So why would you bring up small claims court if it's not even necessary? Can't keep track of your own story?
You asked what recourse you have, I assumed you realised we have consumer protections in Canada. Then you tried to twist it into whether I've personally taken someone to court. That's irrelevant since the point is that consumer protections already exist, so your whole argument falls apart. You're just baiting at this point. And yes, I have returned stuff after paying with cash, crypto and credit card. This is not uncommon.
No, you've never actually shown that there's recourse against bad actors. You brought up small claims court, but dropped the subject - likely because there's no legal framework for that; then you mentioned nebulous "consumer protections," but still can't manage come up with any description of how a bad actor would be held to account in such a situation.
With a credit card, for example, this is typically a very easy process that can be accomplished via one's bank's website, supported by financial regulatory frameworks.
What "bad actors"?
How does this differ than using cash? Or credit card. You are not being clear. What recourse do you have when using cash, for example?
Are you trying to make a joke? Have you actually completely forgotten what the original post is even about?
The post is about the *payment processor* being the bad actor. In that case, crypto is an alternative because it bypasses processors entirely.
If the bad actor is the *merchant*, then you already have consumer protection laws, and beyond that the legal system, same as with cash, crypto or credit cards.
You haven't shown how cash or credit cards are inherently less risky than the Lightning Network. With cards, you can be debanked or have your account frozen by the processor (which is what happened in this post). With cash, a merchant can just take it and not deliver. Crypto doesn't make this worse. In fact, it removes the risk of being debanked while functioning like digital cash (crypto payments can be made directly, not just through custodial processors).
Chargebacks exist with cards, but they're double-edged (e.g. fraud, arbitrary reversals, censorship).
If you don't understand crypto or don't see the problems it solves, that’s fine, no one’s forcing you to use it. But dismissing it as "less accountability" doesn’t hold up under scrutiny.
Why ?
Because the problem isn't with the currency itself, it's with the intermediaries necessary for large scale mercantile interactions like selling games on an independent storefront.
Just because you use crypto doesn't mean someone who holds that crypto in trust for you can't just not give it to you if they don't feel like it. And as there is less regulation covering that currency, you have less recourse in getting it back from them.
I can't speak to all the positives and negatives of crypto, but I can say it is not in any way a cure-all that you can just inject into capitalism to fix everything.
As far as I know both of them are also payment processor, not only currencies.
Why would I use a third-party to store or process my Bitcoin payment? That's the whole point you're not forced to use a trusted third-party to store or pay. I don't, never did.
As a swiss citizen I can tell you that there is way enough regulation covering that currency, in fact it is regulated as foreign currency (currency of cyberspace hehe). I don't know how it is outside but also looks heavily regulated in EU and probably is in America.
I know, I'm not that stupid :D It was for the meme cuz this is the internet.
The main issue is that regular payment processors don't do what they are suppose to do (process payment and nothing else), they freeze account for no reasons (GrapheneOS, flipper-zero, etc...) censor payment because they don't like an industry (closed an entire plateform (UTip) because of one adult content creator), industries that already are regulated by law. Holding users funds longer than needed, or censoring for political opinion etc.
In this regard Bitcoin is neutral : You have the money, it's a valid transaction. You pay enough fees your transaction will be confirmed sooner. Who you are, how you get this money and why you are sending it is none of the payment processor business.