A few years ago, Bitcoin was a big deal. In recent year’s, it’s popularity has some what died down however that hasn’t stopped Valve from finally adding it as an acceptable payment method when purchasing games on Steam.
Valve has brought Bitcoin payment to Steam thanks to a partnership with Bitpay which was signed to allow Steam to target gamers in emerging markets such as Brazil and China so that users can pay without using a credit card. Not everyone has access to a credit or debit card in developing countries so adding Bitcoin as a payment method is seen as a way of attracting more gamers to the platform to buy games with the internet’s most popular cryptocurrency. Of course, it isn’t without risk as the currency conversion of Bitcoin constantly fluctuates and not only that, but hacking wallets is still a problem for the virtual currency.
“While more users are coming online in these countries, traditional payment options like credit cards often aren’t available,” said Bitpay in a blog post. “As the internet’s universal currency, Bitcoin will allow Steam to easily reach gamers in every market around the world — without the high fees or the risk of chargeback fraud that come with card payments.”
I’m sure there are plenty of gamers though who have some bitcoins laying around on their system somewhere so this does look like a good move by Valve. After all, Valve are a trustworthy company so you are at least guaranteed to receive your product even if you pay in Bitcoin.