Recently, Microsoft made a presentation to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposing that the company evaluates purchasing bitcoin. But what people don't know is that the company's history with the crypto asset began relatively early: in 2014. Although companies like PayPal or Dell had already done it, the company was a pioneer by making a bold decision for its era, and that today would be less daring and even normal: accepting payments with bitcoin.
Bitcoin as a payment method in the Microsoft Store
The crypto asset was enabled in December 2014 in the United States as a means to add funds to accounts, which could then be be spent on a variety of Microsoft services. For example, purchasing video games and videos on Xbox consoles, adding apps and services, or purchasing Microsoft software. The account could be funded according to fixed amounts of 10, 15, 25, 50, 75 and 100 dollars.
This is how Microsoft allowed you to pay with bitcoin. Source: bleepingcomputer.com In 2018, according to other media and user testimonials on Microsoft forums, the company still accepted bitcoin as a form of payment in its official service store. However, the payment method had suffered interruptions and was temporarily decommissioned at least twice, in 2015 and 2016. The reason for the drop? The instability of the price of bitcoin, according to bleepingcomputer. Microsoft's tolerance for Bitcoin's volatility could have been exceeded on several occasions, considering that the asset was younger and more volatile at the time. This volatility would have caused them to incur realized losses, perhaps recording the first stamp of suspicion on the crypto asset. As late as 2019, Microsoft was accepting bitcoin payments in its official store, as witnessed by this post from a user on the company's forum. Around those dates, Microsoft would have permanently discontinued the use of bitcoin to purchase digital services and products.
Microsoft and Bitcoin did not fully understand each other
In the year 2024, Microsoft does not accept any form of payment with bitcoin or cryptocurrencies. In fact, recommends using traditional payment methods to access its services:
At this time, the Microsoft Store does not accept cryptocurrency as a direct payment method to purchase products and services. We recommend that you use traditional payment methods such as credit cards. Zoro, Microsoft forum moderator
A look at the payment methods enabled for the United States makes it clear that bitcoin does not appear:
Only accepts credit, debit, paypal and venmo cards. Source: account.microsoft The emphasis on “traditional payments” is not accidental. Because, although Microsoft no longer accepts payment with cryptocurrencies, there are ways to buy its products using crypto assets. For example, using bitcoin or other virtual currencies to purchase gift cards, which can be redeemed in the software company's services. Despite its primary adoption, and discounting the current interest that seems to reconnect it with Bitcoin, Microsoft gradually moved away from the crypto asset, until it was no longer allowed as a payment method. Microsoft was never fully into the adoption of BTC as a payment method, actually. From the beginning it was restricted, because it only allowed paying for a few services.
Start YOU with blockchain: Microsoft only gives you the inputs
A branch of Microsoft, Azure, did become more seriously involved with Bitcoin technology, although from a platform, infrastructure and software as services (SaaS) approach for institutional clients. That is, Microsoft saw with Azure an opportunity to offer services to those who wanted to start a business using Bitcoin technology. They did it with the caution that characterizes them and with one foot outside the cryptocurrency ecosystem, avoiding reaching the consumer directly.
Azure offers customized assistant AI services. Source: /azure.microsoft.com/ Azura is a cloud services platform. It offers a “fully managed blockchain service that simplifies the formation, administration and governance of consortium blockchain networks so businesses can focus on workflow logic and application development,” according to the business branch website. Among other contributions, Azure Blockchain Service partnered with JP Morgan, the largest bank in the United States, making the on-chain enterprise network called Quorum available on its services. Again, having a branch entirely dedicated to the technology originated by Bitcoin does not imply that Microsoft is fully in the industry. In 2022, Microsoft blocked mining of Bitcoin in your Azure services by updating the terms of online services, as reported by BitcoinDynamic. Before that move, Microsoft Azure allowed Bitcoin miners to run nodes on its servers. Timidly, Microsoft also embarked on other projects involving Bitcoin technology, but never with a focus on the cryptoasset itself, but thinking about applications on its blockchain.
Microsoft developed a platform for a decentralized identification system (DID), called the “Identity Overlay Network” (ION). It is built on top of the Bitcoin network as a second layer, and is capable of supporting “thousands of decentralized identification operations per second across the entire network.”
Microsoft is a compliance-conscious company, which is why its services are geolocally compartmentalized. Source: /identity.foundation/ion/
Microsoft: from timid to bold in a few days
The initiative to create a human identification network on Bitcoin, together with the historical reserve for the crypto asset, could reveal one of the keys to Microsoft's departure. This concern, which was recently expressed by Bill Gates (who is no longer CEO of the tech giant), It has to do with Bitcoin's pseudo-anonymity.
Microsoft has historically been a company very concerned about compliance, and Bitcoin's pseudo-anonymity, as well as its disruptive ethos, may have exacerbated that concern. However, Bitcoin has changed considerably in recent years, gaining the appreciation of institutions as large as Microsoft, which have already jumped on the bow of the world's first cryptocurrency. As it did when PayPal and Dell accepted bitcoin payments, Microsoft may be jumping into the industry again, unabashedly, this time with bitcoin seen as a regulated investment asset.
I would jump now, at the best possible time: when the environment is most secure, Bitcoin is almost unanimous; when others have already experienced the rugged consequences of arriving first; and especially as Bitcoin is approaching the price crunch of its four-year cycle.