For the past few years, Microsoft’s Bing search engine has offered up the ability to convert multiple currencies. For example, simply head over to the site and enter “1 USD to Rupees” to learn that 1 US Dollar is equal to 62.03 Indian Rupees.
Now, the Redmond based company has added the digital currency, Bitcoin, to its arsenal of knowledge. Moreover, for all of you who are wondering, No – Google does not offer Bitcoin conversion at this time.
For those unfamiliar with Bitcoin, it is a peer-to-peer open source payment system that was introduced almost ten years ago in January 2005 and has since grown to worldwide popularity. Unlike traditional currency, a Bitcoin is not based upon any physical material, but instead relies on digital “mining”. One of the many benefits of Bitcoin include the fact that it is decentralized and does not rely on a middle man as standard government currency does.
Downsides include a highly volatile market and a lack of widespread use. To learn more about Bitcoin, you can head over to their official website by clicking here.
Are you a Bitcoin fanatic – are you happy to see integration within Bing?
Source: Bing Blogs
Reader comments
Microsoft Bing cozies up to Bitcoin – offers live conversion via Coinbase
Ahh that's good! Something bing beat google at
"Introduced 5years ago in 2005" last I checked it was 2014. 5 years ago is 2009 lol?
My time machine was on the wrong dial - whoops! ;)
Lol..
In the countries that ban it, yes.
Even in countries that don't ban it, I've heard of a few people either having their bank accounts shut down or told to take their business elsewhere. There's no way the banks want to lose their grip on our fortunes to gamble with.
For those who'd like to trade bitcoins, my Kraken app now fully supports trading :) http://www.windowsphone.com/s?appid=a3857353-599a-434f-8293-398745723de6
The app was covered by WPCentral when it was launched but I've given it some major updates since then. And there's more interesting stuff in the pipeline!
Liking the Kraken app! Looking forward to future updates.
If by traditional currency you mean "$, ¥, £" etc then neither is traditional currency based on materials.
Would be nice if it supported other alternative crypto coins like litecoin which is I suppose peoples favourite atm.
Should I start minning?
Only if you are willing to buy an ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) miner. People use to use GPUs, but they’re to inefficient now, mining with them you probably won't cover the electricity costs let alone the cost of the hardware.
Nothing backs a Bitcoin. Just something made up outta thin air.
Bitcoin is backed by how much people want to pay for it. Much like other currencies. And unlike other currencies it's immune to inflation because there are a fixed number of bitcoins that can ever be mined.
So? The dollar or the euro or then yen aren't backed by anything either. The gold standard came to an end in 1971.
The eternal web and the third International currency!
Toronto has a bitcoin ATM. Neato.
Aah, the possibility to convert mob money...
Take that, Apple!