Whether you're picking up a new app on your Lumia smartphone, downloading a digital game on Xbox or just buying something from a Windows digital store, Microsoft is now accepting bitcoin for digital purchases.
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According to Microsoft, customers can now pad the wallets of their Microsoft accounts by transferring in money via bitcoin. All that cryptocurrency collectors need to do to get started is sign into their Microsoft account then head over to the "Billing" section. In the menu for payment options, they should be able to find the choice to redeem bitcoin. Then they can get busy buying goods from all kinds of Microsoft-based digital stores, including the Windows Phone app store, Xbox Games, Xbox Music and Xbox Video.
According to Engadget, you can only add $100 worth of bitcoin at a time (though that's more than enough to get you a new Xbox game, a couple video rentals and a handful of apps), and there's a daily transfer limit of $1,000. This money also can't be refunded once it makes its way into your Microsoft account, so be sure to double check the amount that you want to add.
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"For us, this is about giving people options and helping them do more on their devices and in the cloud," said Eric Lockard, corporate vice president of Universal Store at Microsoft, in a blog post (thanks, CoinDesk). "The use of digital currencies such as bitcoin, while not yet mainstream, is growing beyond the early enthusiasts. We expect this growth to continue and allowing people to use bitcoin to purchase our products and services now allows us to be at the front edge of that trend."
At this point, bitcoin support is limited to costumers in the U.S.
