Gamers will get a possibility to pay for games in a more secure way.
Valve is going to add bitcoin payment option in future versions of game DRM platform. Valve is going to take this measure for security purposes first of all. But people residing in the countries with unfavorable pricing practices will benefit as well. BitPay API will be used for handling in-store transactions.
Valve is known as a creator of Steam, the pioneering game platform that distributes and manages thousands of games directly to a community of more than 65 million players around the world. Bitcoin payment option means easier access to Steam for users who used to be limited by a lack of payment provider support and region locking due to fraud risk. Those, who are habitual to using bitcoin, can now pay for games in a more secure way with no need to store personal information remotely.
Valve chose Bitpay as this bitcoin payment service provider has much lower fees comparing to other traditional credit card payment processors. It mitigates chargeback fraud and user information leaks.
Valve once presented official statistics that stated that an average of 77,000 accounts are hacked every month. To prevent further abuse of user accounts, Valve has introduced mandatory two-factor authentication when accessing the Steam marketplace. In this way blockchain can become an excellent solution as it can be used for decentralized communication, file sharing, and various other purposes. Blockchain-based authentication system will ensure that every Steam user is who he/she claims to be.
Popular game XCOM 2 announced recently that it started supporting the use of a handheld gamepad. However the support is limited to Valve’s decidedly non-standard Steam Controller for the time being.
Valve is currently the largest gaming platform in the world having around 125 million active users. Bitcoin adoption by Valve means that other DRM platforms can follow, making the cryptocurrency one step closer to a cash-like level of acceptance.
Interestingly, Valve is not the first gaming platform to start working with bitcoin. BitPay has recently partnered with Wargaming, Belarusian-based online multiplayer gaming giant, to enable its massively-multiplayer online (MMO) gaming platform to accept Bitcoin.
Wargaming’s integration of the BitPay processing technology is one of the first implementation of the Payment Protocol standard, which allows Wargaming customers to purchase virtual gold faster, broadcasting their transaction to the Bitcoin network in less time.
“With bitcoin, Wargaming is taking a new step to reach the growing base of users playing its MMO games in the United States. As a native digital top-up method, bitcoin will give Wargaming’s customers an alternative to filling out credit card forms and a simpler, faster way to get the virtual gold they need,” said James Warpole, BitPay’s Marketing and Communications Officer.
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