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Microsoft to continue taking Bitcoin after 'inaccurate information' appeared on its website

A post saying Microsoft would stop accepting the cryptocurrency appeared on the company's site

Doug Bolton
Wednesday 16 March 2016 17:32 GMT
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A sticker on the window of a Berlin pub indicates the acceptance of Bitcoins for payment
A sticker on the window of a Berlin pub indicates the acceptance of Bitcoins for payment (Getty)

Microsoft has said it will continue to accept Bitcoin, after "inaccurate information" posted on its website caused many holders of the cryptocurrency to believe they had stopped taking it.

A post on the company's official website earlier this week told customers that they could no longer redeem Bitcoins into their Microsoft accounts.

It said existing Bitcoin balances would still be able to be spent, but they wouldn't be refunded - signifying the company was ceasing support for Bitcoin.

However, the post has been deleted (but is still available via the Internet Archive), and Microsoft have released a statement assuring customers they'll continue taking their Bitcoins.

Speaking to TechCrunch, the company said: "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 apologise for inaccurate information that was inadvertently posted to a Microsoft site, which is currently being corrected."

The news came at a bad time for the Bitcoin community, which is currently split on whether the cryptocurrency's infrastructure needs major changes in order to increase its capacity.

It's not clear how the post inadvertently made it to Microsoft's site, since it was given its own dedicated page on the Windows support site.

However, everything is now back to normal, and it looks like the few Bitcoin-using Microsoft customers will be able to continue buying apps with the cryptocurrency for the forseeable future.

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