Microsoft will no longer accept Bitcoin currency payments on Windows store, a service that was introduced in US by Microsoft Universal Store corporate vice president Eric Lockard back in December 2014.
This move by Microsoft comes just over a year after the company first implemented it for apps and other content on the Windows store.
Although Microsoft has not officially announced this, a post on the store says users can longer redeem Bitcoin into their Microsoft account. It however says existing balances in users account will still be available for purchases from Microsoft Store, but can’t be refunded. What this means is that existing balance in your account can still be used for transactions in the store, but you can’t make any new deposits using Bitcoin.
The support has been also withdrawn from Windows 10 and Windows 10 Mobile app stores.
The move by Microsoft should however not come as a surprise considering the growing tension that has been going on about the use of Bitcoin. In January, one of Bitcoin’s lead developers Mike Hearn also quit after terming the virtual currency a failure.
Whatever reason Microsoft has for this we still don’t know, all we can do is just wait for an official statement from them.