Valve dropped Bitcoin from Steam due to mass fraud

Back in April 2016, Valve began accepting Bitcoin as a form of payment on the Steam Store, allowing those with cryptocurrency to purchase games. Valve eventually removed support for cryptocurrency in 2017, and now we know why – half of the transactions were fraudulent.

When Valve first decided to remove Bitcoin payments from Steam, the company stated that an increase in fees and the overall volatility of Bitcoin as a currency led to the decision. Recently though, Gabe Newell revealed another key reason for the decision, fraud.

Speaking with PCGamer recently, Newell touched on Valve's experience with cryptocurrency, saying: “The problem is that a lot of the actors who are in that space are not people you want interacting with your customers. We had problems when we started accepting cryptocurrencies as a payment option. 50% of those transactions were fraudulent, which is a mind-boggling number. These were customers we didn't want to have.”

If there was that much fraud to sift through, you can't blame Valve for pulling the plug. Steam might be the biggest PC games platform around, but it doesn't have the biggest team of developers. In fact, Valve is notoriously lean as a company compared to other ‘Triple A' studios and publishers. Recently, Valve has also put a stop to any NFT-driven games and other crypto-based titles on Steam.

KitGuru Says: Valve isn't a company that needs to chase trends. Given that other major publishers have all recently expressed interest and support for Blockchain tech in gaming, it is nice to hear an opposing view from a key industry figure. 

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