Valve Software corporation has informed developers and publishers that its online gaming platform Steam will soon start accepting payments in bitcoin, though the company itself will neither get nor hold any bitcoins.

As stated in a note distributed by Valve, to process bitcoin payments, the company plans to use an external payment provider. The unnamed third party, which, according to some rumours, may turn out to be BitPay, will receive payments in bitcoin digital currency and then transmit it to Steam, thus making no further moves on Steam’s part necessary.

The user who chooses to pay in bitcoin will be charged the price in local currency, according to their region, which will be then converted by the payment processor into bitcoin digital currency, based on the current exchange rate. No special BTC price will be set by Stream itself, as the unnamed payment processor will pay Steam back in fiat.

“Bitcoin is becoming an increasingly popular online payment method in some countries, and we’re enabling a system that insulates partners from risk and volatility while still providing value to the end customer,” the Valve’s note reads.

The move is likely to cut costs for those Steam users who live in the regions where the local currencies are not yet accepted by the platform and who thus have to overpay for currency exchange. For instance, CoinJournal states that Australians are likely to save up to 25% if they pay in bitcoins instead of converting their AUDs into the fiat currencies accepted by Steam.

The rumours concerning Steam’s potential embracing of the digital currency appeared on Reddit in February when an alleged leak from the Steam’s translation project was published.

Steam is a popular online game marketplace claiming to have more than 125 million active users worldwide.



Maria Rudina