Bitcoin is one of the most valuable cryptocurrencies out there at the moment. Its increasing popularity seems to have gotten Microsoft to include support for Bitcoin in its products.

Microsoft Office is probably one of the most used piece of software. Anyone familiar with computers would have used at least one of the products from their Office suite. Be it an Apple Mac or a Windows user, Office 365 customers can soon maintain and manage their Bitcoin accounting on Excel. The upcoming features list for Office 365 in 2017 was announced by Martin Butler, an Account Executive at Microsoft. In his LinkedIn post, he has mentioned five new features – Real-time transcription and translation of Skype Meeting Broadcast; Bitcoin Currency Support; Conditional access policies for locations and apps; New data gathering and shaping capabilities for Excel; and OneNote improvements for classroom and collaboration.

While all the five features look attractive, the part about Bitcoin currency support catches the eyes of Bitcoin community members. According to Martin, the updated version of Excel in 2017 will be able to recognize, format, calculate and analyze numbers expressed in Bitcoin currency. This feature, to be made available across all device platforms doesn’t seem much of a technological advance. But it is definitely an indication of acceptance of Bitcoin as a potential mainstream currency.

The addition of new features to Microsoft Office comes at the time when the Bitcoin community is confused about filing taxes on their crypto-holdings. The recent IRS summons to Coinbase for information about its customers has called for the need of a software that can help people calculate taxes. The addition of Bitcoin support for Excel offers some comfort until other options surface.

Microsoft is not new to Bitcoin and blockchain technology. The company started accepting Bitcoin payments way back in 2014. Also, its Azure has included Blockchain as a Service offering for blockchain-based applications. The community hopes for more Bitcoin-friendly software and applications from the tech giant in the near future.

Ref: LinkedIn Pulse | Image: Shutterstock