Mark your calendars for April 8. It’s been a target day of dread for thousands of companies’ IT departments counting down the days before they cross the “finished” line. There are currently armies of IT folks throughout the world in a race to upgrade Microsoft Windows XP operating systems to modern versions of Windows before Microsoft officially pulls the plug.
For the bitcoin community, this matters because of one extremely important factor: PCI compliance. April 8 is the last date Microsoft will publish the latest round of security fixes for Windows XP known in the IT departments as the monthly “Patch Tuesday”. The first reported vulnerability after that date means the computer is unsecured and no longer compliant with the laws established by the PCI organization that grants authority to use the credit card payment networks.
With no legal ability to process credit card transactions, businesses that rely on credit cards to run their operations could be in serious jeopardy. The backup plan has traditionally been cash, or written checks for the few that continue to accept them. Since the internet age, credit cards and Paypal have been the only payment options available to merchants. Many merchants have been in a state of denial about the Windows XP and PCI Compliancy predicament. Without a large IT organization to advise them, smaller companies may find this deadline comes as an unwelcome surprise.
So ... it may be a good time to hold on to your bitcoins, or better yet – stock up.
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