Online retailer is a big believer in the digital currency
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Overstock.com Inc. demonstrated a surprisingly high level of commitment to digital currencies Friday with the news that it is planning to offer its employees the option of being paid in bitcoin.
The discount online retailer made the announcement in a release about a new bitcoin ATM that it has installed at its corporate headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah.
“Moving cryptocurrencies out of the realm of geeks and into the realm of the rest of us requires making changes at all levels of the financial ecosystem,” Chief Executive Patrick Byrne said in the release. “An important part of this effort is making digital money ATMs accessible.”
Overstock.com OSTK, -0.42% has been accepting bitcoin as payment since Jan of
2014. Customers have made $3 million worth of purchases with bitcoin since then. The company says an analysis of the first year of usage indicates that Utah has the second-highest adoption of the currency among U.S. states, after New Hampshire.
Since its launch in 2009, bitcoin, an electronic currency that is traded by users who store it in digital wallets, has won fans and detractors, while bitcoin-focused companies have attracted large sums of investment dollars from venture-capital firms.
The currency has been criticized for its volatility, climbing to a peak of $1,150-a-coin in December of 2013 to $284.76 in recent trading. A wide range of companies including Amazon.com Inc. AMZN, -1.17% Target Corp. TGT, -0.91% CVS Health Corp. CVS, -0.05% eBay/PayPal EBAY, -1.38% Tesla Motors Inc. TSLA, -1.88% Microsoft Corp. MSFT, -0.84% and Dell Inc. accept it as payment.
Bitcoin’s price declined by about two-thirds in the past year, according to the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index, which factors in prices from several bitcoin exchanges. It was trading at about $930 in January 2014.
The currency suffered a setback in 2013, when the Tokyo exchange Mt. Gox collapsed after hackers stole 800,000 bitcoins, which were valued at about $500 million at the time. Earlier this week, the Slovenia-based exchange Bitstamp said it was suspending its service temporarily, after losing about 19,000 of the coins in a breach.
Overstock.com shares were slightly higher in early trade, but are down 20% in the past 12 months, while the S&P 500 has gained 12%.
Bitcoin Bowl comes to college football
June 18, 2014: 12:43 PM ET
NEW YORK (CNNMoney)
The latest effort to bring Bitcoin into the mainstream: brand a college bowl game.
Say hello to the "Bitcoin St. Petersburg Bowl," the new name for an annual postseason football game on Florida's west coast. If it sounds a bit awkward, it is.The company that paid for the naming rights to the game through 2016 is BitPay, which processes Bitcoin payments for businesses. BitPay is hoping the game will pique interest in a currency that's gained popularity with merchants.
In the last few months, several companies have started accepting bitcoins, from a car dealer in California, to Expedia (EXPE), Dish Network (DISH) and Overstock.com (OSTK).
And it's gaining attention as governments formally acknowledge it.
BItPay's executive chairman, Tony Gallippi, said a Bitcoin Bowl is more about promoting the digital currency and less about his company. He hopes BitPay can just ride the wave as Bitcoin gets more popular.
Gallippi declined to say how much his company paid for the sponsorship
David Rabahy pulled his bitcoins out of Mt.Gox before things went south -- but the ordeal has cost him money anyway.
The price of a bitcoin has dropped significantly in recent weeks, due to a sharp drop in investor confidence. Mt.Gox's troubles are the primary driver behind that dip.
Rabahy, a 55-year-old software consultant in Northville, Mich., first got into Bitcoin because of his son, pictured with him above. Then in mid-2013 he invested $10,000 and some of his retirement funds into Bitcoin. Although that had skyrocketed in value to more than $100,000 by December, it's now worth half that.
He intends to keep his bitcoins, though. And he's glad to see Mt.Gox go down without government help.
"Nobody can come in and save Mt.Gox from their mismanagement. Perfect," he said. "I'd rather see a competitor that is well managed succeed."
Are we ready?
The price of a bitcoin has dropped significantly in recent weeks, due to a sharp drop in investor confidence. Mt.Gox's troubles are the primary driver behind that dip.
Rabahy, a 55-year-old software consultant in Northville, Mich., first got into Bitcoin because of his son, pictured with him above. Then in mid-2013 he invested $10,000 and some of his retirement funds into Bitcoin. Although that had skyrocketed in value to more than $100,000 by December, it's now worth half that.
He intends to keep his bitcoins, though. And he's glad to see Mt.Gox go down without government help.
"Nobody can come in and save Mt.Gox from their mismanagement. Perfect," he said. "I'd rather see a competitor that is well managed succeed."
Are we ready?
Not I. As a retired person I value the safety of my money.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteDeletion above was for an addition and a correction.
ReplyDeleteThis is a subject with a lot of facets and one people will have to consider carefully but I don’t think many people really understand enough about the differences between hard and fiat currency or for that matter, competing currencies, to understand where we are headed.
Firstly, make no mistake, bitcoin and all of its virtues as a stateless, secure form of purchase will not be allowed to stand. It will be banned by the same people whose comments on this very forum refuse to allow private banks to issue currency be it fiat or hard... By the same people who applauded when the FBI and Secret Service raided and confiscated Ron Paul Dollar coins made out of copper, silver and gold because they “looked similar to U.S. coins.” Apparently they were stamped with the words: ‘Trust In God’ and ‘U.S.A’. This anti competition mantra is supported and guided by central bankers all over the world.
Secondly is the motive for the trend to move to a digital currency. The history of our move first to a fiat money, to the credit card and then to boundless credit has been pushed, as always by the central banking system. Of course central banks want this next step, no more printing, distribution or maintenance. Also it will be possible to track every transaction that is made and to completely remove all access to any funds with the flick of a digital switch. While that in itself is bad enough from a privacy point of view, it can also mean that people change their spending. Some people might not spend money on things that they do not want to be linked to. This can be a donation or a purchase of a pregnancy test.
Folks who believe in both hard currency and competing sources are shouted down by apologists for the central bankers and pompom wave for the support of MMT with little understanding of either. We saw on another thread a post that talked about the ‘new’ distorted version of the definition for the world inflation… much misunderstanding… much manipulation to achieve it.
As for the digital currency itself, Bitcoin appears to be secure and manipulation proof but as we have seen time and time again anything created in software is 100% secure and can’t be undone or corrupted. They assure us bitcoins will be capped at 21million but the Federal Reserve has always had the right to resort to ‘extraordinary’ measures. Where did they get the 21 million figure from anyway?
For a digital currency to work 100% of the population, young and old, urban and rural would have to be digitally connected… no mean feat in the outback of Australia, the far reaches of the Canadian tundra or for that matter the many dead cell phone areas that exist in US towns and cities.
Right now the fees for transacting in bitcoin, if you can are very high even though all bitcoin sales are final… The anonymity of the transaction would make returns impossible. As with credit purchases it makes budget tracking more difficult for some people resulting in overspending.
Beyond that, you can never be completely free of your tether to the bank. I keep in a safe 2 months of cash funds that will meet all of my bills and purchase food and fuel. While I am in the unique position of living on US dollars in the UK and must use ATM and bank transfers, I have always maintained a cash in hand approach to banking as it is portable, universal and if I wish, untraceable… digital currency would eliminate that last vestige of independence an individual has outside of the banking system to initiate a private transaction.
Untraceable currency is the dream-come-true for drug lords, arms traffickers and others engaged in illegal trade and tax evasion. Make no mistake, that is the real reason for bit coins.
ReplyDeleteDigital Currency is a dream-come-true for central bankers and governments. I’m not so sure that bitcoin itself was conceived in deceit. Many people have talked about competing currencies that are not controlled by governments or their partners in crime, central banks. No doubt many criminal elements saw it is yet another avenue to move illegal business, but I don’t think that the bigger players have much to worry about as their appear to be banks quite willing to launder their money and governments who won’t put the bankers in jail… hint: you don’t have to travel far or leave the US to find one.
DeleteDigital Currency is being pushed by some very influential people… damned the consequences.
http://www.gatesnotes.com/2015-annual-letter?WT.mc_id=01_21_2015_DO_com_domain_0_00&page=3&lang=en
http://www.infowars.com/bill-gates-pushes-cashless-society/