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Title: Thank, you Microsoft. Post by: niko on September 07, 2011, 03:01:59 AM http://www.finextra.com/news/Fullstory.aspx?newsitemid=22921 (http://www.finextra.com/news/Fullstory.aspx?newsitemid=22921)
Quote Microsoft is pressing the Reserve Bank of Australia to consider adjustments to the domestic payments markets to help consumers conduct transactions in virtual currencies, such as Facebook Credits and Microsoft Points. Quote The RBA submission concludes: "Looking into such a future from the perspective of today's systems raises the question as to whether the domestic payments infrastructure could be modified or adjusted in some way to facilitate and manage the exchange of value beyond traditional currencies." Title: Re: Thank, you Microsoft. Post by: Steve on September 07, 2011, 03:10:54 AM http://www.finextra.com/news/Fullstory.aspx?newsitemid=22921 (http://www.finextra.com/news/Fullstory.aspx?newsitemid=22921) I wouldn't be so giddy...Microsoft is just using bitcoin as a convenient boogeyman to induce legislative action...I wouldn't expect any Microsoft funded legislation to be friendly to bitcoin.Quote Microsoft is pressing the Reserve Bank of Australia to consider adjustments to the domestic payments markets to help consumers conduct transactions in virtual currencies, such as Facebook Credits and Microsoft Points. Quote The RBA submission concludes: "Looking into such a future from the perspective of today's systems raises the question as to whether the domestic payments infrastructure could be modified or adjusted in some way to facilitate and manage the exchange of value beyond traditional currencies." Title: Re: Thank, you Microsoft. Post by: repentance on September 07, 2011, 05:04:04 AM It will be interesting to see where this goes. Our banking system already allows for easy and rapid electronic transfers of funds and we already have BPay (the most popular method of paying bills in Australia by far) layered on top of that.
In theory you could integrate BPay with a digital currency but you'd have to convince BPay that the volume of transactions would make it worth their while - a company with the reach of Microsoft or Facebook might have the pull to do that but they'd still have to find some way to make their virtual currencies compliant with our anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism laws as well as our financial services regulations. Title: Re: Thank, you Microsoft. Post by: joulesbeef on September 07, 2011, 05:07:07 AM i guess it is cool, banks are handy, businesses like banks, but microsoft wants you to use xbox bucks, or maybe they want to expand into bingcoins. But what ever they do, it will only be profitable for microsoft and not for us miners and it will compete with BTC with a crap load of capital and influence behind it, so maybe not so cool.
Title: Re: Thank, you Microsoft. Post by: niko on September 07, 2011, 05:47:55 AM It's still a foot in the door. Not our foot, mind you, but a big, fat, strong, corporate foot. I don't see how this would be bad for Bitcoin. If nothing else, the public perception of money as something exclusively controlled/issued by the governments would be shaken.
Title: Re: Thank, you Microsoft. Post by: herzmeister on September 07, 2011, 09:08:52 AM In that article, Bitcoin is mentioned in another context. Microsoft did not say anything about Bitcoin. They are just interested in setting things straight about their own XBox points and stuff.
Title: Re: Thank, you Microsoft. Post by: Litt on September 07, 2011, 04:20:32 PM Well I don't know about microsoft paving the way for bitcoin, but one thing is certain. Microsoft certainly won't engage in business that they haven't already done enough research to conclude that it will go mainstream in the future. But it's not like we didn't know that the change from fiat paper money to a 100% virtual electronic currency was inevitable in the future.
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