Microsoft Restores Bitcoin Payment Functionality

In spite of being highly volatile in nature, Bitcoin has attained the position of a viable store of value with some people choosing it over the yellow metal. Yet, given the high network fees and slow confirmation times, Microsoft had halted most of its Bitcoin functionality. With the state of things, this decision surely did not come out of the blue and was quite expected to be rolled out sometime soon. The image of bitcoin has off late been tarnished by a bevy of technical issues making its position a dubious one at present. For Bitcoin to gain cost and time advantage, the problem of scaling needs to be catered to primarily. These were the background reasons behind Microsoft halting its Bitcoin payment options.

The US customers could pre-fund their Microsoft Store accounts using Bitcoin which served all its customers pretty well. But this decision caused Microsoft to face considerable form of backlash. Thus, the company was on a lookout for a solution to this ongoing problem rather than dropping the Bitcoin option in its entirety. A similar scenario would have caused other companies to drop the Bitcoin issue altogether. Thus, the stand taken up by Microsoft is definitely worth appreciation. Microsoft for example was pondering over how lower quantum paid in terms of Bitcoin could impact the business since in many cases payment amounts are lower in comparison to the associated fees given the high network fees of the Bitcoin mode. Thus, it is useless for both retailers and consumers to transact using Bitcoin. This uneasy situation which has been lingering for quite some time now could not manage to catch hold of any short-term solution whatsoever.

Microsoft is optimistic about the bright future Bitcoin has in store. But it cannot shy away from the associated loopholes either. The intermittent issues of Bitcoin is one constant feature but dealing with the same is any day easier to be discussed than achieved. Problems like these are setting the stage for upcoming competitive cryptocurrencies having cheaper fee structure and requiring lesser processing times.

Nevertheless, Microsoft has reinstated full Bitcoin payment functionality in its website which it started supporting since 2013. Surely a company of such magnitude would not stick to Bitcoin had it not housed the requisite potential. How things shall shape up in future is still a big mystery but the bigger question lies in how other retailers shall respond to Bitcoin amidst issues which had stood as a barrier in its mainstream adoption.

Also Read: Top Global Companies Accepting Bitcoins As Payments

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