tech2 News Staff

When asked two years ago, in a Reddit AMA if cryptocurrencies such as dogecoin or bitcoin would be accepted as payment on Steam, Gabe Newell had replied that this was unlikely because of stability problems in the cryptocurrency economy, and the complications of treating a non government backed peer to peer payment network as another currency. Bitpay just announced a partnership with Steam, that allows gamers around the world to purchase Steam games using bitcoin. Dogecoin is not supported though.

Valve took the initiative of approaching Bitcoin for the partnership. Steam needed a way to open up its stores for users in developing economies and emerging markets, especially China, India and Brazil. Steam's usage data showed that gamers from these countries were less likely to have access to traditional payment methods, which are mostly credit cards. Usage data also showed that consumers from these markets were averse to risk and susceptible to frauds, so avoided using credit cards even if they had access. Steam opened up its content to all these users, by implementing a payment mechanism that uses the de-facto currency of the internet, bitcoin.

The implementation of bitcoin payment allows gamers from around the world to anonymously consume games without revealing any personal information. Any bitcoin wallet can be used to make the payments on Steam.