Cryptocurrency Mining Through Steam sounds a bit fishy, so let me tell to the whole story. There was a game that was on Steam marketplace that cost money, it’s called Abstractism.
This game advertises a stylish design and a relaxing atmosphere. If you bought it and played this little abstract platformer style game. The game itself would actually install cryptocurrency mining software on your computer without you knowing.
According to reports, Users who buy and install this game said their system recognizes it as a Trojan Virus. They also uploaded screenshots as a proof. Somehow, a YouTuber SidAlpha was led to believe that this virus was mining cryptocurrency because he noticed high stress on his PC. The game also encourages playstyles that have gamers keeping the game open for long periods of time. It would fall in line with reports of the game mining cryptocurrencies on the backend. Which is just insane, shitty, and really ballsy, especially considering they are charging for the game.
Besides that, in-app items in Abstractism are sold on Steam under the guise of rare virtual items for Team Fortress 2.
Therefore, players spend real money on them without realizing that they are effectively worthless. But I think it’s really unbelievable that this is where the world is going and it’s definitely a shame. Because it’s preying on people who essentially don’t know too much about computers. Maybe they’re into PC gaming but they don’t know how to actually properly monitor their Hardware. I would like to think people will be playing a really simple game. And notice their computers fans are going crazy and think, hmm what’s going on here. This is also a great example of the types of problems Steam could run into as they continue to open their platform to more titles.
