Atlanta Digital Currency Fund investor and Bitcoin expert Alistair Milne first shared Microsoft’s Bitcoin integration on social media. The Bitcoin community reacted positively and expressed their enthusiasm towards the company’s efforts in leading the mainstream adoption of Bitcoin.
Microsoft describes Bitcoin as currency on its official release paper

While self-evident to Bitcoin users and enthusiasts, large-scale corporations, government agencies and financial institutions have avoided the term “currency” in describing Bitcoin over the past few years.

As such, most mainstream investors and users referred to Bitcoin as an asset, in spite of the usage of Bitcoin in various regions across the world as the global digital currency.

However, throughout 2016, the viewpoint of mainstream media outlets and investors altered greatly, as global economic instability and financial troubles worsened. In some regions such as India, China and Venezuela, users had virtually no other options but to utilize Bitcoin as a store of value due to the demonetization of certain banknotes, shortage of cash, rapid devaluation of currency and the tight imposition of capital outflows.

By the end of last year, investors and traders were considering it as the global currency and the only safe haven asset that has the capacity and ability to prevent financial troubles and economic instability. It also outperformed every single currency and asset in 2016, which led to an increasing demand for Bitcoin.

In consideration of past events and Bitcoin’s crucial role in protecting the wealth of most households and businesses in the past 12 months, Microsoft coined Bitcoin as a currency for millions of users utilizing Microsoft Office on a daily basis.
Microsoft’s involvement in the cryptocurrency industry

The Microsoft development team was also heavily involved in the development and deployment of various Blockchain-based platforms. Most notably, Microsoft launched Azure Blockchain as a service platform, in which large-scale businesses can use Blockchain to facilitate the settlement of financial data.

The company also supported meetups of Ethereum Classic and other Bitcoin and Blockchain companies, demonstrating their enthusiasm towards the development of the cryptocurrency industry.

    Microsoft
    Bitcoin

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10 HOURS AGO
By
Olusegun Ogundeji
Vitalik Buterin: Bitcoin More Likely Than Ethereum to Split in 2017
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Vitalik Buterin: Bitcoin More Likely Than Ethereum to Split in 2017

As the lead developer of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin counters the view by the founder of the International Blockchain Real Estate Association, in hinting that Bitcoin is more likely than Ethereum to split into two in 2017.

He stated in a tweet to Ragnar Lifthrasir:

    @Ragnarly Past performance not indicative of future results; I actually think BTC is more likely than ETH to split in 2 in 2017
    — Vitalik Buterin (@VitalikButerin) December 30, 2016

Lifthrasir had, in his response to the news that the United Arab Emirates is using Ethereum (ConsenSys) to conduct a real estate records pilot program, described the UAE as “being irresponsible for using Ethereum (ConsenSys) over Bitcoin” for the program.

He stated that: “Ethereum is a terrible choice for a real estate database.” His argument is based on the view that real estate records need to exist for decades and that “Ethereum is too unstable, too mutable, too unproven compared to Bitcoin to be used for a real estate database.”

He also cited the exploitation of $150 mln worth organization The DAO in June 2016, the subsequent hard fork that split Ethereum miners, the network’s history of bugs and errors and the uncertainty of Ethereum developers to switch from Proof of Work to Proof of Stake consensus algorithm.

Lifthrasir thinks that the 400,000-times greater hashing power of Bitcoin and its 23-time bigger market cap make it a better choice for the real estate database instead of Ethereum.

Buterin later added:

    @Ragnarly To clarify I'm referring to an ETC/ETH style fork, not accidental consensus splits
    — Vitalik Buterin (@VitalikButerin) December 30, 2016

In another tweet, he says:

    @Ragnarly Or, they can just... choose the chain that makes sense.
    — Vitalik Buterin (@VitalikButerin) December 30, 2016

He added elsewhere that the notion “that Blockchains are "all about" one-X-to-rule-them-all is silly maximalism.”

For John Lilic, the co-founder of Code to Inspire and a ConsenSys LLC member, he thinks: “Not like as if the UAE did not consider #Bitcoin or other tech. They arrived at #Ethereum after careful consideration #TechWinsOverFeelings.”

Buterin has since published “A Proof of Stake Design Philosophy” which is his own views on why proof of stake protocols exist and how to design them.

    Vitalik Buterin
    Bitcoin
    Ethereum

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