Valve's Gabe Newell shares why Steam banned NFTs
The word Newell uses a lot is "sketchy".
In an interview with Eurogamer, Valve’s Gabe Newell opened up about why Steam opted to ban NFTs from the platform. According to Newell, some of the things being done with them were “super sketchy” and even potentially illegal.
Newell went on to compliment blockchain as a technology, while noting that the ways in which the technology has been used are “pretty sketchy” as well.
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Newell didn’t provide specific examples of what he means by “sketchy” but he does cite an example in regards to cryptocurrencies, with 50 percent of the cryptocurrency used in Steam transactions reportedly being fraudulent.
Newell goes on to say it simply wasn’t a good method, and that “people who are currently active in that space are usually not good actors.” Regardless of whether you agree with Newell on this, it’s clear that Valve intends to continue keeping blockchain games that offer cryptocurrencies and NFTs off the platform.
The decision to exclude these types of games was first made by Valve back in October of 2021 with “applications built on blockchain technology that issue or allow exchange of cryptocurrencies or NFTs” added to Steam’s rules and guidelines about what can and cannot be distributed on Steam.
For more on NFTs, be sure to read through our feature on NFTs, cryptocurrencies, and their hidden environmental impact.
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Morgan Shaver posted a new article, Valve's Gabe Newell shares why Steam banned NFTs
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I believe that what we are seeing today is like computing in the 1970s or the Pets.com peak of the dotcom bubble, which is the worst version of whatever ends up coming out of this.
This isn't to say that what comes next won't be bad or even a nightmare, just look at what Web 2.0 got us, only that something will shake out
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