Steam no longer accepting Bitcoin in Russia

Steam was created by Valve Corporation, an American entertainment software and technology company.

In June 2016, an online discussion board called Pikabu contained a message that appeared to be from Steam confirming that it was no longer supporting Bitcoin in Russia.

The Finance Ministry in Russia developed a proposal to officially ban Bitcoin in Russia in March 2016. The proposal by the Finance Ministry cites the Russian Central Bank to be the sole issuing authority to create the only valid currency in the country, the Russian ruble. The bill is to be entered into the State Duma, the lower chamber of the Russian parliament, according to cryptocoinsnews.com.

Steamworks Development, a website operated by Valve, announced Steam would start accepting Bitcoin payments. It said users are charged the local currency price on Steam and the payment processor converts the local currency into Bitcoin based on a daily exchange rate.

Valve announced it was bringing Bitcoin payment to Steam globally, according to a BitPay blog dated April 27, 2016 by Rory Desmond, director of business development for North America and APAC at BitPay. Valve reached out to BitPay since they sought global payments for Steam users in emerging markets, Desmond’s blog noted.

There are websites that sell Steam games that accept Bitcoin, such as SteamBitShop.com, cheaperthansteam.com and steamgamesbtc.com.