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Microsoft Halts Bitcoin Transactions Because It's An 'Unstable Currency' (bleepingcomputer.com)

Posted by msmash on from the tread-with-caution dept.

Catalin Cimpanu, reporting for BleepingComputers: Microsoft has stopped supporting Bitcoin as a payment method for Microsoft products, Bleeping Computer has learned. A Microsoft support staffer has told us the move is temporary and cited the unstable state of the Bitcoin currency. Microsoft added support for Bitcoin in 2014, and has previously temporarily stopped supporting Bitcoin in the past.

5 of 106 comments (clear)

  1. I called it earlier by DaveV1.0 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    When a currency can quickly gain or lose half it's value with no apparent reason and no apparent cause, many people won't want to take them for fear they will lose money on the deal.

    --
    There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
    1. Re:I called it earlier by DaveV1.0 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Sure. And people using it should have had an issue with using it when it kept climbing. That is why highly unstable currencies are bad. The smart people buy low and sell high, and that "people" includes businesses. Accepting a depreciating currency is a bad business decision. If offered to pay you for a product you are selling with a 25% margin in a currency that had a 50% chance of loosing half it's value before you could trade it for the stable local currency, would you do it? If you are smart, you would tell me to pay in the stable local currency.

      --
      There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
    2. Re:I called it earlier by tlhIngan · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Sure. And people using it should have had an issue with using it when it kept climbing. That is why highly unstable currencies are bad. The smart people buy low and sell high, and that "people" includes businesses. Accepting a depreciating currency is a bad business decision. If offered to pay you for a product you are selling with a 25% margin in a currency that had a 50% chance of loosing half it's value before you could trade it for the stable local currency, would you do it? If you are smart, you would tell me to pay in the stable local currency.

      The problem is not that - because they only accept bitcoin for the few minutes it takes to confirm a transaction - as far as Microsoft is concerned, they get US dollars either way.

      The problem is Bitcoin takes forever to confirm transactions, or you start paying through the nose for it - and I'm sure the real reason is Microsoft is not going to pay the $50+ it takes to do a near-instant confirmation. And likely, because cheap confirmations can take over two weeks, I'm sure people don't like to wait either - only to find out they're still short in the end.

      I'm guessing the real problem is the processor is unable to reflect the current bitcoin transaction fee status to the customer - and customers are refusing to pay the inflated fees.

    3. Re:I called it earlier by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yes, the people failing to use logic or rational thinking are definitely the ones halting transactions on the wildly fluctuating "currency" that is traded like a commodity and has no intrinsic or backed value.

      On the other hand, let's trust the person who equates the USD and bitcoin.

      Bitcoin is a "currency", again, backed by nothing, which lost approximately 25% of it's value in a single day and whose lifetime minimum (I'd use ten years but it hasn't been around for 10 years yet) is equivalent to 1,52 euros with a maximum of just over 16K euros. It's single year min and max is 745 and 16K euros respectively.

      Meanwhile, the derided US dollar is backed by the government of a country who represents the largest economy based on GDP, and controls the largest military. Their currency has "depreciated" by about -23 euro cents over 10 years... in other worlds, the euro is actually what is depreciating, unless you mean just this past year alone, which the US dollar admittedly lost around 13 cents. This is over a 10 year min max of 0,62 and 0,96 euros,and a single year min max of 0,82 and 0,95 euros respectively. Or a 10 year swing of 1.54%.

      I'm not an economist, but I'm going to guess the volatility index of something that swung approximately 10664% in less than 10 years is going to represent a riskier investment than something that swung around 1.54%

      PS: Now if you've lost faith in America due to our most glorious leader, you might have something, but honestly I doubt the major players in our economy are struggling under our current administration. If anything they are thriving, making the USD an even better bet-- but that's heading into political discussion which is probably best left for another time.

  2. "Because it's an unstable COMMODITY" by PeeAitchPee · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It's the speculation related to the market dynamics of blockchain currencies being treated as commodities in a market that is currently causing any instability, either perceived or otherwise. That is a completely different issue than any cryptocurrency's intrinsic *technical* stability.