Leave it to a gamer to come up with something as cool as game-gifting in the comment sections of Reddit, payable not only in Bitcoin but also in Litecoin, Vertcoin, Dogecoin and Darkcoin.

Reddit user The_Hox announced that his website Eternal Summer Sale has launched a bot which allows users to “tip” one another, only instead of tipping cryptocurrency, they’re tipping complete games on the popular platform Steam.

The_Hox kicked off his highly-upvoted post by giving away copies of a game called Hitman: Codename 47. The process is just like using the wildly successful Changetip (think “Tipping Tuesdays”), as captured below:

Eternal Summer Sale doesn’t offer all of the games featured on Steam, but it does offer many of them, and most are at discounted prices (between 18-71% off).

The bot couldn’t have come at a better time, as many gamers have asked Steam to consider accepting cryptocurrency for its games, but to no avail. In fact, Steam representatives did an “Ask Us Anything” on Reddit, and in response to a question about Bitcoin acceptance, Gabe Newell (co-founder of Valve) responded:

“There are two related issues: one is treating a crypto-currency as another currency type that we support and the broader issue is monetary behaviors of game economies. The first issue is more about crypto-currencies stabilizing as mediums of account.”

I guess no one told them about payment processors like Coinify, who convert Bitcoin to fiat and thereby eliminate volatility concerns for merchants. And I don’t even know what “monetary behaviors of game economies” means.

Not being a gamer myself, I figured I should include a cautionary comment left on The_Hox’s post. Reddit user Gundato wrote:

“Just a heads up: It sounds like the bot is just selling keys out of boxes. This very much gets into the grey area where Valve can ban your account for exploiting regional price differences and all that other fun stuff. . . So use at your own risk, and keep in mind this really isn't doing much to improve the credibility/decrease the shadiness of Bitcoin.”

Though I must say the phrase “exploiting regional price differences” is a negative-sounding term for simple arbitrage, and if inventing cool things that bring more digital goods to more people is “shady,” then I’ll happily sit in the shade.

Here are step-by-step instructions on how to buy and/or gift Steam games with cryptocurrency from Eternal Summer Sale. And there are other methods to getting in on the Steam action with Bitcoin, too. The websites SteamBits, Steam Loader and the Humble Bundle all offer games or Bitcoin gift card alternatives. Happy gaming.

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