Bitcoin wallet for Counter-Strike winnings
Are you good enough to pay the bills thanks to your skills in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO)? You can prove it by betting and earning bitcoins in the popular PC shooter, thanks to an unofficial integration provided by startup ZEBEDEE.
ZEBEDEE’s bitcoin wallet, used to earn crypto-currencies in the game, will be integrated with the Bitstamp exchange.
This feature was revealed by the company in February, ahead of the launch of servers integrated with Infuse technology, which offers BTC rewards to players.
While the service is functional and offers a competitive experience unique to CS: GO, the startup admits that it wasn’t easy to transfer funds out of the ZEBEDEE Bitcoin Gaming wallet, whether to convert BTC into other cryptocurrencies or use winnings to make payments.
That’s where Bitstamp comes in. On Thursday (3), the exchange announced a partnership with ZEBEDEE to integrate Bitstamp into the wallet. According to a release, the integration will make it easier for players to move and convert crypto-currencies won in games that rely on ZEBEDEE’s Infuse technology.
ZEBEDEE’s Infuse technology
Bitstamp employees, including CTO David Osojnik, were among the participants in the first public demonstration of ZEBEDEE technology in CS:GO, which took place as part of a MintGox game streaming event earlier this year.
MintGox streams also feature several original bitcoin-centric games, such as the racing game Bitcoin Rally and the Battle Royale shooter Lightnite. The ZEBEDEE integration uses the Lightning network to make bitcoin payments.
As Decrypt reported earlier this year, playing CS:GO with ZEBEDEE’s Infuse technology allows players to wager a small amount of BTC and potentially win more depending on their in-game score.
Although the amounts are small, players can “accumulate sats” by earning satoshis (1 satoshi = 1/100,000,000 BTC) over the course of matches, and then withdraw the winnings. According to ZEBEDEE, over 10,000 people have played CS: GO matches using the rewards system.
ZEBEDEE will unveil the MintGox Esports Arena at this weekend’s Bitcoin Conference in Miami, where players – in person and online – can earn BTC by participating in matches.
Bitstamp has donated 0.5 BTC (around $18,800) to the CS: GO competitions, while market research company L’Atelier BNP Paribas has donated 0.5 BTC to the L’Atelier Bitcoin Rally championship. In addition, players can compete in bitcoin-infused independent games and win a share of the “millions of [satoshis]” distributed at the event.
