Illegal in Russia?
That will kill what appears to be (from all reports) a major income source. I would suspect if that happens, the ransomware miscreants will move to another country.
Back in November 2014 Microsoft announced that it had struck a deal with an outfit called Bitpay that would let it accept Bitcoin in the Windows Store. “For us, this is about giving people options and helping them do more on their devices and in the cloud,” Eric Lockard, corporate vice president of Universal Store at Microsoft …
An "App Store" with fewer apps and now fewer ways to buy them.
Yes it's true, demand for Bitcoin has been maintained, and by using ransom-ware as a service, and also by concentrating mining performance into larger consortia within common control. The number of marks is adjustable. If the price threatens to go down, the scammers just need to find and trick more marks to increase demand in order to enable their investments to be cashed out at acceptable prices to them. Interestingly, Bitcoin/conventional exchange prices have stabilised as legitimate uses are driven away from the platform.
"What's a Zune?"
"Precisely".
Capitalize the 'a' - like so - 'A'... Now downsize the 'Z' - like so - 'z'.
OK, now slide the 'A' closer to the 'z' - like so - 'Az'.
Now the tricky part.
Erase the second half of the 'n' - like so - 'r'.
There, 'Azure' - look familiar? :)
The first time Microsoft has some something sensible in a long time.
Keep it up. Next you could consider :
Taking a brick and Windows 10 round the back of he shed next. I'm sure you will figure out the next bit.
Stop all the cloud BS
Stop ignoring those who were your supporters. They have the direct link to real customers who ask "how can I..." (Btw the answer they are giving is never Windows 10)
See what you could do with technical people - perhaps some form of set of all your products that can be used for non-production use, evaluation and demonstrating to potential customers. You could call it 'the technical network, or Technet' for short.
Stop copying Apple and Google.
It would be more accurate to say "Microsoft shuts down automatic Bitcoin conversion service, users will have to convert their currency externally instead".
I very much doubt that anything in the Windows Store was being sold for "10 Bitcoins" or any other fixed number. They would be sold for 10 pounds or 10 dollars and you paid whatever that was worth in Bitcoins at the moment you bought (plus a fee for the conversion). Microsoft weren't taking payment in Bitcoins, they were taking payment in sterling or dollars but providing a means for you to convert Bitcoins to that currency first. Nothing has changed except you now have to convert your Bitcoins to currency yourself.
Where are all those ExtortionWare people going to spend their BitCoins now?
Expecting to see more of the kind as BitCoin increasingly is used in extortion payment schemes. It's kind of the "Unmarked Bills" thing like you see in the movies, though I never could figure out if the idiots asking for "Unmarked Bills" could tell if they were marked. I always figured it was one of those Hollywoodisms.