There might be life in the old beast yet: Microsoft now accepts Bitcoin as a payment option on its Windows and Xbox stores — which means you can now use Bitcoin to purchase a new copy of Windows, the latest installment of Call of Destiny: Master Chief Edition, or even to buy the latest season of your favorite TV show. Obviously, this is a pretty big deal for Bitcoin: Not only is a currency only as valuable as its ability to be exchanged for useful goods, but an endorsement from a company as large as Microsoft will be seen as a significant milestone that might get other important companies to take another look at accepting Bitcoin.
As of yesterday morning, you can now use bitcoins to add funds to your Microsoft account. When you go to add new funds, you have the usual options of using a credit card or gift card — but now you also have the option of using bitcoins (it’s US-only for now, incidentally). Microsoft isn’t handling Bitcoin itself; instead, it’s partnering with BitPay, a payment gateway. Basically, BitPay allows retailers to accept bitcoins instead of dollars — and then it goes ahead and handles all of the actual currency exchange, so that there’s no risk for the retailer (the Bitcoin-USD exchange rate is somewhat volatile).
In short, this means you can now use Bitcoin to pay for (I think) everything that Microsoft sells online — basically, everything from the various Windows, Windows Phone, and Xbox stores. I’m not sure if this covers the Microsoft Store itself — I don’t know if you can buy a new Microsoft Band or Surface tablet with bitcoins — but I wouldn’t be surprised (the online Microsoft Store uses the same account credentials as all of Microsoft’s other services). In any case, you can definitely use your bitcoins to buy Xbox games, music and video content, and apps for any of your Windows or Windows Phone devices. If you’re feeling particularly avant garde, you’ll probably even be able to pay your Windows 10 subscription with bitcoins.
Microsoft, which joins the likes of Newegg and Dell, is almost certainly the largest company so far to accept Bitcoin. With the legal status of Bitcoin as a currency somewhat in limbo, and a historically very volatile exchange rate, many larger companies have shied away from accepting it. With the exchange rate stabilizing, though, and slick gateways like BitPay assuming most of the risk, adoption is definitely on the rise. It will be interesting to see if other tech juggernauts like Apple and Google now follow suit — and, even more importantly, whether this will cause the value of Bitcoin to increase or decrease.
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