Humble Bundle restored Bitcoin payments this week after pulling them for about seven days. The gaming bundle site brought the feature back with one change: Bitcoin buyers now face a $2.50 minimum orde
Humble Bundle restored Bitcoin payments this week after pulling them for about seven days. The gaming bundle site brought the feature back with one change: Bitcoin buyers now face a $2.50 minimum order, while customers using credit cards or PayPal still see $1 minimums.
Humble Bundle attributed the shutdown to what it called "recent abuse" in a March 14 tweet. The support account stated: "We have resolved issues with our bitcoin payment processor. Bitcoin payments are once again active site wide. Sorry for the inconvenience!"
The return matters to Bitcoin-focused gamers. Humble Bundle offered one of the few mainstream ways to buy games with the cryptocurrency—Steam still doesn't accept Bitcoin despite years of speculation it might. Players could set their own price and direct money toward game developers, charities, or Humble Bundle itself.
The site's Bitcoin option ranked high as a proof of concept for low-fee transactions. Bitcoin advocates often pointed to it to show how the network's cheaper payments could open doors to microtransactions. That argument carried a flaw: Humble Bundle uses Coinbase to process Bitcoin, making itself a middleman that never passed Bitcoin to developers or charities. The rhetorical value existed, even if the mechanics didn't match the pitch.
The new $2.50 floor undermines that case. Humble Bundle bundles cost $1 or more at the base tier. A $2.50 Bitcoin minimum puts it at a disadvantage against more established payment methods on this particular platform. Someone wanting to spend $1.50 on the cheapest package could pay with a card or PayPal but not Bitcoin.
Humble Bundle didn't detail what went wrong. The company's tweet mentioned "issues with our bitcoin payment processor" but declined specifics. The Merkle published a piece on the outage without clarifying the source. Maybe Humble Bundle faced spam transactions. Maybe the Bitcoin network's transaction backlog played a role. Maybe something else caused the problem. The company hasn't answered those questions.
Humble Bundle kept Coinbase as its processor after the outage. The relationship continued despite whatever disrupted service. The company didn't switch providers or make new announcements about Coinbase's role. Customers trying to test the restored Bitcoin option will encounter the same company handling their transactions.
The higher minimum doesn't kill the use case. Gamers can still fund bundles with Bitcoin. But as a case study in Bitcoin's payment utility, Humble Bundle lost ground this week.
