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THE HYPE SURROUNDING bitcoin may have lessened somewhat in the last few months, but more companies are adopting the digital currency as a way of paying for goods.
The latest company to get in on the action is Microsoft, which is now allowing users to pay for apps, games, music and videos using the cryptocurrency.
The move is due to a partnership Microsoft has with bitcoin processor BitPay and allows US users to purchase from the Windows, Windows Phone, Xbox Games, Xbox Music and Xbox Video stores. It makes it one of the first major tech companies to fully support bitcoin as a currency.
Although there are some caveats. For one, you can only use bitcoin to add money to your Microsoft account – $100 at a time – before you can purchase something digitally. At the moment, you can’t purchase goods using bitcoin directly although it’s implied that this may change sometime in the future.
Also, money transferred to your Microsoft account using bitcoin cannot be refunded, and it’s limited to just digital goods instead of physical.
Earlier this year, Microsoft introduced a bitcoin currency converter to Bing, while the price of one bitcoin is €287.
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Dell computers have been accepting bit coins for almost a year now.
They future is here. Physical money is so last Millenium
Just looking at the price of bitcoins now, its still financially unsafe method of currency to invest or store. If you both 1 btc in Sept, its already worth a hundred euro less today. It’s been dropping steadyily all year and the hope at even mining btc yourself has since past and only possible now by massive well funded farms. It takes longer now to mine a single btc due to the algorithim and size of the block increasing, the cost of electricity to run the AISC computer and the steady downward value of bitcoin. It stands currently at 285 euro today and it was valued at 380 in Sept and 480 euro in June. Unless you buy it from an exchange and immediatly use it for a transaction theres a good chance your losing money still.
Derek, you are selecting higher prices from earlier this year as your benchmark bit there have been lower prices earlier this year too, and far lower prices if you look further back into its history. Overall it is still a remarkably high performing investment and can only be viewed with a negative outlook if you assume a downwards trend in the future. Its value is certainly volatile and unpredictable but there has been a great investment for many people, even if you invested early last year. Ultimately, the price is the least interesting aspect of bitcoin. The problems it solves and range of applications of blockchain technology is where the value lies.
Unless it turns out to be entirely speculative and have no backing or intrinsic value… Tulips looked like a remarkably good investment up until 1637.
And at least when those people lost all their money they could grow some pretty flowers to cheer themselves up… Lol
Bitcoin is as legit if not more legit than the Euro. All it takes is for people to stop considering the euro legal tender and its gone, same for bitcoin.
I agree with you Martin on it being a worthwhile investment for those who bought say early ’13 when it was at it lowest starting off and skyrocketed by 15 fold last Dec. A lot of people made a lot of money there and are still in the green.
With its future, I only wish for its success and growth, anything which takes control of currency away from banks and self interest monopoles who worryingly have already turned their attention to buying btc, is welcome. It needs to steady off however soon and settle more where within a week it can fluctuate a by fifty dollars, once this happens and more Institutes and companies get on board and accept transactions with it I think it has the potential to become a real future contender.
It started off Jan 3rd 2009 and had been through several bubbles since then. I wouldn’t be so sure that the 2013 bubble is the last. The value must increase as adoption grows due to the scarcity built into the protocol. If you believe that we have seen peak adoption levels already then there will not be another profitable bubble and you should not invest.
All currencies require a degree of consensual delusion. What is the intrinsic value of a dollar? The warmth from burning it? What is the benefit of having your currency backed by a government? That they can confiscate it from your bank account if the economy takes a nosedive? There is a reason The University of Nicosia runs a masters degree in digital currencies and accepts bitcoin as payment for all courses. Cypriots have experienced the “benefits” of a government backed currency.
You clearly don’t know what ‘Legal Tender’ actually means…
It’s not ‘most people think it’s worth something’ it’s if I owe you a debt and I pay you using ‘legal tender for all debts private and public’ you can’t sue me and claim you were never paid.
You didn’t mention legal tender in your previous post Drew. I addressed the specific points you raised “no backing or intrinsic value”. Each country can grant bitcoin legal tender status if it chooses to do so. Just because it’s not legal tender today in Ireland today doesn’t mean it can’t be or won’t be in the future. Today bitcoin is legal currency in many countries and several, including Germany and Australia have indicated that is may be granted legal tender status in the future.
I will avoid using this currency if possible.
Can’t beat pirated software !!
Glen is a paid shill for The Pirate Bay.
Cha Ching!
What a mad headline,
This just in:
I bought a loaf of bread in a major supermarket, it was not tesco or dunnes!!
Bit silly alright, its the way they get an extra click from people going into article to find out its microsoft
I’m going to start using eir-coin
Hopefully more places in Dublin start accepting.
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