The end of the match was nothing special. From the outside, it looked like any other Counter Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) esport match, until the final results rolled in.
After the winners were announced, a QR code popped up in the corner of the screen with the message: “You have won 8,673 sats!” (sats being short for “satoshi,” a microunit of bitcoin).
This sats reward corresponded with the player’s match points, the in-game scoring system that traditionally only exists as a means to gain experience points to “level up” in the game. Except these points weren’t just in-game currency, they were actual money that could be withdrawn from the game.
A play-for-pay plugin from software developer ZEBEDEE called Infuse makes this possible. It uses Bitcoin’s Lightning Network to facilitate instant, near-feeless payouts to players. Previously in closed-beta, ZEBEDEE’s CS:GO servers are now open to the public.
