Did you know the Microsoft Store supported Bitcoin? Well, it doesn't any longer, but it shows how the company was willing to do what it takes to make it easy for folks to shop at its online portal.
The company made the big announcement that it no longer accepts Bitcoin via its FAQ page. Interestingly enough, the company did not announce the change via a blog post or anywhere else for that matter.
"You can no longer redeem Bitcoin into your Microsoft account. Existing balances in your account will still be available for purchases from Microsoft Store, but can't be refunded," says a note in the Microsoft Store FAQ page.
To make things even more weird, there's a section of the FAQ that instructs the user on how to add Bitcoin funds to their Microsoft Store account. We suspect this will go away soon since support for the currency is no longer a thing.
The software giant first came out in support of Bitcoin back in 2012 when the currency was cool and folks were doing whatever it takes to get a piece of it. The Bitcoin exchange rate was massive back then, but it never manages to stay high for long. Unlike normal currencies that can stay at a single exchange rate for quite some time, Bitcoin is very unpredictable.
To make things even more worse for Bitcoin, the software developers have split. There are now two forks, which could be one of the reason Microsoft decided to jump ship. Furthermore, support has been waning for quite some time, and we doubt it will ever reach the heights of 2012.
Another issue with Bitcoin is the fact that it attracts criminals. Criminals tend to use the currency a lot in online transactions. Furthermore, there's no real Bitcoin bank, so losing hard earned savings to hackers is always a risk. Several folks have been hacked in the past.
Until the kinks are worked out, we doubt Bitcoin will ever rise again unless Wall Street and business establishments around the world wants it to. Until then, we will just have to stick to keep using our badly handled currency.
DEspite the changes, Microsoft will continue to support Bitcoin on the Xbox Store and Windows Store, according to Yahoo News.