Overstock.com, Inc. has announced it will now accept Bitcoin as a form of payment on its online shopping site. Once items are selected and placed in the customer’s shopping cart, Bitcoin is a payment choice along with Visa, MasterCard and PayPal.
“This is historic. Digital currency will be an important part of the future and Overstock is excited to be the first major online shopping retailer to accept it,” states Overstock.com Chairman and CEO Patrick M. Byrne. “As one who believes in limited government, this attracts me because it is a form of money that no government mandarin can will it into existence.”
Bitcoin is the world’s most widely used crypto currency, Bitcoin peer-to-peer network is made up of thousands of computers run by individuals around the world and doesn’t answer to a central authority.
“Bitcoin is well suited for online transactions. It has no transaction fees and works well for international customers. Providing this convenience for the cult-following Bitcoin customer is the smart thing to do,” continues Byrne. “Other online companies will have to follow suit soon.”
Overstock.com is partnering with Coinbase.com out to process the payments and to handle the conversion of Bitcoin into U.S. dollars.
“We believe that Bitcoin is nearing a tipping point for broad consumer adoption, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to be working with the team at Overstock.com to help make that a reality.” states Fred Ehrsam, co-founder of Coinbase
Whitepapers
Related reading
Central banks best suited to issue digital currencies
By Aaran Fronda A recent report by the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF) said that central banks rather than private ... read more
Instant payments: innovations inbound for corporates
In 2020, instant payments look set to continue their current trajectory to become the biggest trend in payments. While these schemes already offer numerous benefits to corporates, leveraging innovations such as APIs and request to pay will go some way to unlocking their full potential, argues Michael Knetsch
Obstacles exist for banks to meet ECB’s instant payments goal
The cost of joining instant payment platforms will be one of many hurdles banks and payment services providers must overcome to meet ... read more
Banks must be aware of “biases” in data used to train ML models
Financial institutions need to be conscious of biases in the historical data that is being used to train machine learning (ML) models, ... read more