Steam Bitcoin payments have been rumoured for a while and now there’s confirmation via a post made by Valve on the Steam developmer forums.
The update states that Valve will be using an external payment provider to process the payments.
“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.
“You do not need to take any action. If customers choose to pay via Bitcoin, they’ll be charged the price already set in the local currency.”
Valve then goes on to explaining how the process works for developers with the Bitcoin exchange rate.
- The user is charged the local currency price on Steam given their region (eg: £29.99)
- The payment processor converts that £29.99 amount into Bitcoin based on a daily exchange rate – so the user pays them in Bitcoin, and the processor pays us in traditional currency. At no time foes Valve receive or hold Bitcoin.
- There is no need to set a Bitcoin price or keep track of BNitcoin valuation. The purchase price of your product does not change.
It is thought that BitPay will be handling the transactions.
Source /r/bitcoin
