Microsoft Bans Crypto Mining On Its Cloud Service
A couple of new additions in the Universal License Terms of Online Services at Microsoft are making a significant change to its business.
The change is related to the Azure service with a strong focus on cryptocurrency mining which became a problem for the software giant with a huge stake in the cloud tech sector.
Azure is an instrument that took over the market and now has the second-biggest market share behind AWS.
Due to its relatively low prices, Azure quickly became a service of choice for some cryptocurrency miners who were able to expand their operations using Microsoft-owned servers.
The updated license prohibits crypto mining
The new addition reads: “Neither Customer nor those that access an Online Service […], can use [it] to mine cryptocurrency with Microsoft’s prior written approval.”
It is a change that will mostly affect businesses that strongly focus on using a variety of hardware to mine crypto. Highly specialized privately owned facilities should not be affected.
Representatives of the Software giant commented on the change and said that miners using their hardware extensively might disrupt and compromise the user experience for other people.
If you want to start your mining operation and add some of the computational power offered by Microsoft, you will need to inquire for written permission first.
It looks like Microsoft wants to protect its platform from those who want to exploit it for business purposes disregarding what other users will experience.
At the moment, miners are in a tough spot. Kazakhstan, a nation that announced that it would welcome miners, is making steps back to protect its national power grid.
The same is happening in Texas, the US, and Germany. Now, cloud services are making it harder for miners to access high-performance cloud technologies to improve their mining game.
Bitcoin needs a temporary reduction of hash rates
Many believe that the size of the mining industry is too large to sustain itself at the present moment. A downsize could help the industry to go through the recovery period smoothly. With even more pressure from a variety of sources, this process may occur naturally.
