BitPay and Valve have teamed up to bring the currency Bitcoin to gaming network Steam. The announcement was posted on BitPay’s website, stating that Valve approached them about finding another option for countries like India, China, and Brazil. Often, these countries are unable to use credit cards as a payment option. 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.
Many initially thought of the digital currency as a great payment method and investment, but Bitcoin’s volatile price has been up and down. Peaking at over $1000 in 2013 and dropping to below $200 in 2015 has hurt its market. Bitcoin has been growing in usage even with the drop in value. According to Blockchain.info, the daily usage of bitcoins nearly hit 250,000 this month.
Steam allows gamers to purchase games from their library of over 9,000 games. With over 89 million users on steam, reaching 237 countries this is going to allow one of the biggest gaming networks to reach even more users.
