Microsoft Ends Three-Year Adoption of Bitcoin, No Longer ‎Accepted At Stores

Software giant Microsoft has silently removed support for Bitcoin in the ‎Microsoft Store – a platform that offers all of its flagship software ‎including Windows and Office‎. The move, which took effect on December 26, comes three years after the ‎corporation adopted the digital currency in late 2014 with much fanfare. ‎

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Although an official statement from Microsoft is not yet available – many ‎crypto enthusiasts and reporters reached out to the company for a word on ‎this. The support staff has already revealed that Bitcoin is not accepted anymore ‎when buying content from Windows stores.‎

Several Microsoft employees have cited the unstable state of the Bitcoin currency. It’s also ‎possible that Microsoft simply did not want to deal with ‎complaints of delayed transactions, significant increase in the fees to process ‎transactions, a scenario which it would have little control over. The high volatility may cause even greater problems for the company when the value of Bitcoin itself drops ‎dramatically.

Transaction fees that are charged to the customer by the Bitcoin network have skyrocketed ‎in 2017, topping out to more $20 per transaction last month, compared to roughly $0.20 ‎when Microsoft originally accepted Bitcoin. ‎

In December ‎‎2014, Microsoft has added bitcoin as a payment option to purchase ‎apps, games, and other digital content from the Windows, Windows ‎Phone, Xbox Games, Xbox Music, and Xbox Video stores. At the time, the software-maker joined the ranks of other large companies like Dell, ‎Newegg, TigerDirect, among others, to begin accepting bitcoin.‎