Looking for another way to purchase games on Steam? You may be in luck. Steam has announced today that they will be accepting Bitcoin as an alternative payment option, with processing via Bitpay. As reported earlier by coindesk.com, Bitpay has commented that Valve, owner and operator of Steam, approached it regarding the acceptance of Bitcoin as a way to resolve the issue of less accessible areas having very limited payment options.
“Valve reached out to us because they were looking for a fast, international payment method for Steam users in emerging gaming markets in countries like India, China, and Brazil. While more users are coming online in in these countries, traditional payment options like credit cards often aren’t available.” While Valve has only today made the announcement, many rumours have circulated that Valve would eventually adopt Bitcoin as a form of currency. Slightly less popular digital PC game vendors, such as bit-keys.com and cheaperthansteam.com, had already adopted the currency.
Bitcoin, which was introduced in January of 2009 and invented by by Satoshi Nakamoto, is to date the largest form of digital currency in terms of its market value. Bitcoins are obtained by using computers with high processing power to verify and record numerous transactions in a block chain, or public ledger. The more transactions that are verified and recorded, the more Bitcoins are accumulated. The currency is used worldwide by both legitimate and illegitimate businesses.
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