Microsoft Store will continue accepting payments in bitcoin. The controversial update to its FAQ pages made last weekend was “a mistake”, an official spokesperson for the corporation was quoted as saying.
Microsoft Store customers will be able as before to buy and sell applications, games, video, music and other digital products, redeeming their accounts with bitcoins. It concerns all Windows versions earlier available for bitcoins, including Windows 10 and Windows 10 Mobile.
The announcement was posted last weekend on Windows Store web page declaring that the Store would no longer support bitcoin payments for digital products related to Windows 10 and Windows the Mobile, no further explanations provided. The statement has now been removed.
“We continue to support Bitcoin for adding money to your Microsoft Account which can be used for purchasing content in the Windows and Xbox stores. We apologize for inaccurate information that was inadvertently posted to a Microsoft site, which is currently being corrected,” Microsoft spokesperson told Softpedia.
The new Microsoft statement has revived discussions within the bitcoin community. Some Reddit users suggest that, perhaps, the corporation really intended to give up supporting bitcoin as a means of payment but changed its mind due to expressed dissatisfaction of customers.
It still remains unclear what proportion bitcoin transactions have in comparison to the total volume of payments at the app store. It is possible that Microsoft Store could decide to stop dealing with bitcoin due of low demand for this payment method.
Unlike Microsoft, neither Apple Store nor Google Play Market yet regards bitcoin as a possible means of payment for their digital products.
Recently bitcoin users start noticing that many merchants who had declared their businesses cryptocurrency-friendly in fact do not process bitcoin payments in their brick and mortar shops. The most commonly quoted reason for that is low demand for this type of payment.
Elena Platonova