Bitcoin Payments Go Live At Overstock — Two Quarters Early 182
New submitter citab writes with news that "the first major retailer is now accepting bitcoins!" In December, Overstock.com announced that they would begin accepting Bitcoin for payment as early as the end of second quarter 2014, but decided to make it a priority task to avoid having someone else beat them to it. From the article: "Last Tuesday, the company struck a deal to handle Bitcoin payments through a service operated by the suddenly hot San Francisco startup Coinbase, and since then, a team of Overstock engineers has worked almost every waking hour to prepare the site for what is undeniably a key moment in the digital currency’s short history. ... [Overstock CEO] Byrne believes this can ultimately boost the company’s bottom line, but that’s not his only aim. For Byrne, a rather opinionated libertarian who’s unafraid to take his company places others fear to tread, embracing the cryptocurrency is as much a political statement as a business decision. Like so many others, he believes Bitcoin can free the world from the control of big banks and big government. 'It helps us fight the machine,' he says."
They don't actually accept bitcoins (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Fantastic news (Score:5, Informative)
They use coinbase which, like bitpay, will convert the btc into usd for the supplier. They will have their usd payment just as quickly as any other payment processor so there is no issue of the price dropping before an item is even prepared for shipping let alone before it is shipped.
Re:I don't get it (Score:5, Informative)
They don't actually accept bitcoins (or quote prices in bitcoins). What they do is offer a 3rd party check-out option. At the time of check out, the amount of USD will be converted to bitcoins according to the rate quoted by 3rd party (coinbase) and buyer would have to send the quoted amount. According to FAQ, quotes are valid for 10 minutes.
This mode of payment conveniently comes with a number of restrictions, in particular any orders paid for in this manner are not refundable in either USD or bitcoin, all buyer can get back is store credit.
More importantly, I don't see what is there to gain for bitcoin users. Privacy afforded by bitcoin is lost here since buyer identity is known to at least two parties - Overstock and Coinbase.
Re: First major retailer to accept Bitcoin (Score:4, Informative)
Ross was an idiot who gave away his identity when he first started working on silkroad (forum posts asking for help) and many otherr mistakes, poor opsec, hiring hitmen (cops in disguise), and ordering fake ids (another trap) and much more. He didn't even use tor to connect to the silkroad server in iceland which led to that being located and imaged as well.
Ross was truly and idiot and its amazing how long it took LE to find and catch him at all as he was not trying to stay hidden at all.
That said, SilkRoad is still up and doing very well.
Re:First major retailer to accept Bitcoin (Score:2, Informative)
First major retailer to reach for freedom from the big banks was Khaddafi. We shot him in the head for it, and claimed he was being a terrorist dictator tyrant.
Lessons learned: Don't buy your oil with gold. The world bank will have America assassinate you.
Re:They don't actually accept bitcoins (Score:4, Informative)