Steam will not accept bitcoins as a payment method for now

For those who make use of the cryptocurrency to buy games off of Steam, you don’t have that option available for you now. Steam just announced it’ll no longer accept bitcoin as a payment method. Valve made the announcement in a blog post saying the decision is a result of the cryptocurrency’s “high fees and volatility.” In the post, it talks about how bitcoin transactions have gone up to almost US$20 per transaction in the past week, which is huge compared to what Valve says was the $0.20 value it had when they initially enabled bitcoin.

The fees are being shouldered by the gamers who make the purchases, which means costs of the games could be higher if the bitcoin value dips. And if value does go up while the user completes a purchase, for example, Steam will have to refund the difference and then the user will have to pay the transaction fee again. As Valve says in the post, “This year, we’ve seen increasing number[s] of customers get into this state,” making it a pretty impractical way to pay for games. Steam says it might reconsider this decision in the future, if the currency becomes more stable.

Source: The Verge

Kaspersky: Financial malware is on the rise

PC security leader Kaspersky latest study finds a steady rise of financial malware where the number of cyber attacks involving financial malware in 2013, increased to 28.4 million - 27.6% more than 2012. This is partly attributed to the rise in cryptocurrency like Bitcoin, which has been targeted by unscrupulous hackers.

New methonds in financial malware include banking Trojans, keyloggers and two relatively new classes of malware – one that steals from Bitcoin wallets and another that downloads software to generate the crypto-currency.

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Robocoin Bitcoin ATM to open today in the West Edmonton Mall

Just one week after unveiling the first U.S. Bitcoin ATM in Austin, Texas, the Robocoin World Tour heads north to the West Edmonton Mall in Alberta, Canada. “We’re really excited about opening Robocoin in the largest mall in North America–our highest traffic venue to date. The high profile location perfectly supports Robocoin’s goal of bringing bitcoin to masses.” explained Robocoin CEO Jordan Kelley.

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TigerDirect is the first online retailer to accept the Bitcoin currency

Bitcoin, the virtual currency that's making waves has just got a major champion in retailer TigerDirect.com who announced they will be accepting Bitcoin - a peer-to-peer digital currency - as a method of payment on over 200,000 products. TigerDirect is the first major US electronics retailer and largest company to date to accept the digital currency Bitcoin via BitPay. Hit jump for the details.

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