Games that allowed you to farm and trade NFTs or Cryptocurrencies will no longer be listed on Steam, according to Valve.
Valve has updated its Steam Rules and Guidelines list to ban games that include cryptocurrencies and NFTs. Any applications that are built on blockchain technology that issue or allow the exchange of cryptocurrencies will no longer be available on Steam.
SpacePirate games, developer of Age of Rust, highlighted the recent policy change in a tweet. Age of Rust is a game that offers NFTs to players who can then trade it with other players or sell in open NFT markets. These NFTs had a real-money valuation to them and that is something that Valve does not wish to associate itself with.
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Changes to Valve’s Policy Regarding Cryptocurrency
Most of the onboarding rules are standard pertaining to adult content, copyright infringements, child exploitation, malware and viruses and more. However, the final rule, rule no. 13, pertains specifically to blockchain and cryptocurrency-based applications.
It’s still not clear when Valve made this change as there has not been any public announcement of the same. Valve has updated its rules because NFT items have real-money value. Steam does not allow items that can have real-world value on its platform.
In recent months, several games have enlisted on Steam that use NFTs and Cryptocurrencies as rewards. These games allow players to earn NFTs via special achievements. Players can then trade these NFTs on open markets and earn real money. Since NFTs have a real money valuation to them, Valve decided to ban all cryptocurrency-issuing games from its platform.
Valve has had a tumultuous relationship with Cryptocurrencies. The Game publisher stopped accepting Bitcoins in 2017 because there was “an increase in the volatility in the value of Bitcoin and a significant increase in the fees to process transactions on the Bitcoin network.”
Cryptocurrency is a digital currency in which transactions are verified and records maintained by a decentralized system using cryptography. With the volatility involved in cryptocurrency and the increase in the number of scams using digital currency, Valve has played it safe, banning such games from its platform. It is still unclear how many games will exit Steam as a result of this decision.
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