Microsoft Quietly Starts Accepting Bitcoin As Payment Method

An anonymous reader writes A new page in the help guide in the payment information of Microsoft's website reveals that the Redmond giant is now accepting Bitcoin as a payment method for products and services on Windows, Windows Phone and Xbox. Currently the payments must go through to credit a Microsoft Wallet account, and the service is initially only available to U.S. users. But the wording of the new page combines with an expansive year for Microsoft and a number of positive statements about Bitcoin from Bill Gates to indicate that this first step is more than just an experiment. Microsoft is now the largest commercial entity accepting the Bitcoin currency, which it processes via the BitPay system, thus protecting the company from fluctuations in the value of Bitcoin. Also at CNN Money.

Comments

No. They are NOT accepting bitcoin for payment.

[Anonymous Coward]

L2Read people.

They've signed on with bitpay.

That's not the same thing as "accepting bitcoin as payment". They're accepting good ol' Yankee Greenbacks as payment, and simply allowing a third party to convert binary monopoly money into US Dollars. The fact that they're doing it this way, and don't want to have even a single bitcoin themselves, shows exactly how averse they are to the whole scam.

This is just more libertarian fluff crap from people who don't understand currency or economics, just vomiting up stuff from the latest "end the fed" newsletter. Until there is a microsoft corporate bitcoin wallet that you can perform transactions on, they're not "accepting bitcoin as payment". Quit the hype.

Re:No. They are NOT accepting bitcoin for payment.

[Anonymous Coward]

I accept Euros as payment for my services, and I convert them directly to UKP because I don't have a Euro account. This occurs at my bank in between the client paying and me receiving the money. That doesn't mean I don't "accept Euros as payment", and only an idiot would suggest it does, since I manifestly do accept Euros as payment. L2Think.

Re:As a Market Lover

[genghisjahn]

I don't know that BTC will ultimately prove to be the way to go, but I do think something like that will catch on in a big way. If you haven't seen it, Andreas M. Antonopoulos's video about BitCoin is pretty informative. https://www.youtube.com/watch?...