So we all know about, and are upset at, the current Visa and MasterCard debacle, and I would like to discuss a possible solution to this conundrum. Digital Currencies (not necessarily crypto currencies) are probably the best chance we have at creating a truly free online marketplace. A great example of a digital currency that already has seen widespread acceptance in Japan (and to a lesser extent China and South Korea) is Bitcash[bitcash.jp]. I currently use Bitcash to make purchases on Japanese websites such as DLsite[www.dlsite.com] and Japanese marketplaces that explicitly won't sell to non-Japanese customers. What makes digital currencies different from crypto currencies is their stability: Bitcash is 1-for-1 bound to the value of the Japanese Yen, and therefore doesn't suffer from the fluctuation problems that Bitcoin, Monero, or Ethereum suffer from (outside of slight fluctuations between the JPY and foreign currencies). Furthermore, Bitcash could be rapidly deployed as a form of payment, and currently has substantially lower fees (both on the consumer side and on the merchant side) than any credit or debit card currently in existence. Lastly, Bitcash already has a userbase of gamers (both in the East and in the West). This makes Bitcash a natural choice for a game vender like Steam.

Now, I know I've been going on-and-on about Bitcash in a post that's mainly supposed to be about digital currency, but that's because digital currencies are (sadly) underdeveloped, and even more underutilized. Bitcash is one of the only successful digital currencies with the largest userbase of any digital currency on the market right now (not including crypto of course). I don't really have a lot of alternatives (which would make a great discussion point for any replies to this post), however, there is one more platform that I feel is worth Steam taking a look at, and that's GNU TALER[www.taler.net]. GNU TALER is an in-development payment system which aims to provide an ecosystem where people can make online purchases in the same sense they would cash in the "physical world". The way it works is that (ideally) all personal banks would host their own exchange through their own banking website. People would withdraw their money from their bank into their GNU TALER wallet (located on their phone or PC), and it would be converted to digital coins with no value outside of the value of whatever currency you happen to be working with (whether that be USD, CND, JPY, Euros, British Pounds, etc.). In this way, there would be no value fluctuations in a similar fashion to Bitcash. The fees would be almost nonexistent (because there isn't a central payment processor: each bank would act as its own processor and the only "fees" that would exist would be whatever it costs the bank to run their exchange server), and it would end reliance on Visa and MasterCard entirely (since the digital coins aren't "purchased" like other forms of digital currency, but rather are created at the time of withdraw and destroyed at the time of deposit). In my opinion, GNU TALER would be the ideal way to perform internet commerce, though sadly, it's still quite early in its development, and nowhere near being ready to be deployed (though all is not gloom and doom: GNU TALER is currently seeing a limited deployment in Switzerland supported by their three largest consumer banks where currently around 15% of all online purchases made in Switzerland are made using GNU TALER).

Anywho, that's my thoughts on the subject. But let's hear what you guys think of the idea of Steam embracing and implementing digital currencies.