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Steam Computer Gaming Network Now Accepting Bitcoin (fortune.com)

Posted by msmash on from the bitcoin-refuses-to-die dept.

An anonymous reader shares an article on Fortune Magazine: The popular Steam computer game network has started accepting bitcoin in a move aimed at making it easier for players in countries like Brazil and China to make payments. Bitcoin transactions will be integrated into game shopping from Steam, which is owned by Valve Software and claims over 100 million users worldwide. Users will be able to use any bitcoin wallet to scan and pay for games or other items without revealing sensitive financial information via software from Bitpay.

7 of 54 comments (clear)

  1. finally, proper use! by astrodoom · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Simple international payments for a product that doesn't require instant confirmation. Exactly what the technology was designed for! Well done, Steam.

    1. Re:finally, proper use! by astrodoom · · Score: 3, Informative

      "And with the way Bitcoin works now, one can easily scam Steam out of a sale, play the game and beat it in a couple of days, reverse the transaction, get banned, repeat with new account and wallet, and Steam will never be able to stop them." The reversing of transactions is only possible for zero-confirmation transactions. That's ~10 minutes you have to beat the game, not a couple days.

  2. Steam/Valve are not accepting Bitcoin by YesIAmAScript · · Score: 4, Informative

    Bitpay is. Valve will continue to accept only actual money. Bitpay will provide a service (for a fee) of turning your bitcoin into the actual money that Valve demands.

    --
    http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
    1. Re:Steam/Valve are not accepting Bitcoin by grnbrg · · Score: 2, Informative

      Well, I hate to break this to you, but Steam isn't accepting your "actual money", either.

      Your bank will provide a service (for a fee) of taking your "actual money" and provides another service (for a fee) of turning that money into an electronic ledger entry that Paypal (or Mastercard or Visa) accept and then they will provide yet another another service (for another fee) of taking that electronic ledger entry, and giving it to Valve.

      Cash for internet purchases virtually never happens. One or more intermediaries are always involved. Virtual dollars and virtual bitcoins each have their pros and cons.

    2. Re:Steam/Valve are not accepting Bitcoin by Paco103 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      A fee of 1%, which is half or less of what a traditional credit card fee charges. Steam/Valve don't accept Credit Cards either. Visa, Mastercard, Maestro, etc will provide a service (for a fee) of turning your credit card number into the actual money that Valve demands.

      What's your point? All currency exchange is just agreed upon IOU's for goods or services. This is just one more that opens up new markets to them as well as decreases processing fees for them if existing customers jump on it.

    3. Re:Steam/Valve are not accepting Bitcoin by gox · · Score: 3, Informative

      What goes on is conceptually same with paying with Norwegian krone, except that I do not have to keep Bitcoin in a custodial service in order to pay online.

      Whether they want to keep some krone or bitcoin around is a matter of accounting. Valve probably doesn't have operational costs they can pay with Bitcoin, but other firms might (hosting, domain registration and whatnot).

    4. Re:Steam/Valve are not accepting Bitcoin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      His point is that he doesn't like bitcoin so it's less "actual" than dollars that haven't been backed by gold since the 70's.