Microsoft Embraces Bitcoins as a Payment Option

You can now buy digital content
for a Windows Phone with bitcoins. Nobody has or wants a Windows
Phone, apparently,
but fortunately you can also buy things from Microsoft you may
actually want with bitcoins, too.

Microsoft is now
accepting bitcoins as a payment option for “apps, games, and
other digital content from Windows, Windows Phone, Xbox Games, Xbox
Music, or Xbox Video stores.” You can’t buy physical products or
services yet, you can only use bitcoins in the United States, and
if you purchase something with bitcoins, they cannot be refunded.
But it’s a start.

Remember how earlier in the year, after prominent bitcoin
exchange Mt. Gox was hacked and collapsed and the value of bitcoins
plunged, people declared the virtual currency dead
or at least doomed? The price has continued to go down—a bitcoin is
now worth about a quarter of what it used to be at the start of the
year ($335 today as opposed to $1,100).  But we’re seeing it
accepted in more and more places.

Engaget notes
that other tech consumer companies, like Dell, have embraced
bitcoins as well, but Amazon is still resistant. Be sure to check
out Reason’s December issue for a
look at the future of money.