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Microsoft's New Bitcoin Strategy

The bitcoin logo

The Bitcoin logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Microsoft stole a march over Google recently, having added the world's numero uno crypto-currency, the Bitcoin, in its search engine Bing's Currency Converter. This has far reaching applications as nobody expected the commonly perceived technology laggard and sleeping giant, the Microsoft Corporation, to wake up to the potential of the Bitcoin currency much before more nimble footed technology majors such as Google and Facebook.

The Amazing Bitcoin :
Bitcoin is what is called a crypto-currency, or a digital currency that exists only on the internet. To put it simply, it is nothing but "internet cash". The Bitcoin monetary system is completely decentralized with no governing or controlling authority. It is completely managed by the consensus of millions of user all over the world connected by the internet. 2013 was an incredible year for the Bitcoin, having appreciated by a phenomenal 1500 % against the US dollar. Currently, as of the time of this writing, a single Bitcoin is worth $ 658 USD. Because of such an incredible increase in value, the Bitcoin is attracting tremendous interest from the investment community. In fact, the highly regarded Silicon Valley venture capitalist, Chris Dixon, a partner with Andressen Horowitz, a major VC firm, has stated on record that a single Bitcoin would eventually be worth $ 100,000 USD.

Bing's Currency Converter and the Bitcoin :
Bitcoin is the latest addition to the currencies supported by the popular feature of Bing, its Currency Converter. Over 50 currencies are supported by the Bing Currency Converter so far. However, Bitcoin conversion may only be made against a much smaller number of more popular currencies, including the US Dollar, the Euro, the Indian Rupee and the British Pound. User may type simple commands such as " x Bitcoin to name-of-currency " to get a conversion from Bitcoin to the specified currency. Example, " 120 Bitcoin to USD" or say "12 Euros to Bitcoin".

How does it help ?
The Bing's Currency Converter is of great help to the average user of Bitcoin. The big problem with Bitcoin has been its propensity to fluctuate widely in price. The Currency Converter helps the growing world community of Bitcoin users to constantly monitor the Bitcoin price movement and have a better grip on their investments in this new currency.

Microsoft benefits.
The adoption of Bitcoin would greatly benefit the Bing search engine of Microsoft in its perpetually losing battle against Google for the position of the world's most popular search engine. The tremendous worldwide popularity of the Bitcoin should send a lot of visitors to the Bing search engine to use its Currency Converter, helping it in its quest to gain much higher levels of internet traffic. So, with its new Bitcoin strategy, Microsoft finally has a winner on its hands.

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