Amazon has no plans to accept Bitcoin as form of payment

Shawn Knight

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amazon bitcoin

Many thought Overstock’s acceptance of Bitcoin as a form of payment would encourage other online competitors to follow suit but apparently that isn’t happening. Cryptocurrency fans may be sad to learn that online retail king Amazon has no plans to accept Bitcoin.

Amazon payments boss Tom Taylor revealed as much during a recent sit-down with Re/code. During the interview, he noted that Bitcoin has received a lot of press lately and that they have considered it. But Taylor added that Amazon isn’t hearing from customers that it’s right for them and as a result, they don’t have any plans within Amazon to engage Bitcoin.

Amazon isn’t the only major online retailer to steer clear of the controversial virtual currency. Heavyweights eBay, Target.com and Walmart.com have showed zero interest in adopting Bitcoin as a form of payment.

Early this year, Overstock became the first major online retailer to accept Bitcoin. The move was apparently a good one as the company reported sales of nearly $1 million with Bitcoin during the first month alone. Since that time, others such as computer hardware and consumer electronics retailer Tiger Direct have joined the fray.

Bitcoin has been going through a bit of a downturn as of late but has rallied over the past few days. The currency dipped below the $400 mark but is now on the rise toward $500 per coin. Is it poised to make a return to the $1,000+ levels we saw around the end of last year?

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Heavyweights eBay, Target.com and Walmart.com have showed zero interest in adopting Bitcoin as a form of payment.
I don't understand why they would. Bitcoins are cool 'n all, but there's not much legit business reason to use them unless you're trying to create some press. Any business that accept bitcoins will have to immediately turn them into dollars to avoid the risk of them losing value. And they'll also have to constantly adjust their prices online to avoid the same problem. Imagine if bitcoins lose 5% value in a day, that would be a 5% discount on anything sold on these sites until the prices were changed.

I can't imagine why a business would want to put up with that unless they knew it would generate more business to cover it and Bitcoins aren't popular enough yet.
 
Regular fiat money seems enough of a bad idea, am the suspicious type. Can anyone explain why virtual currency, especially the proliferation of them like litecoin, dogecoin etc. make them a good alternative to government paper money since it seems you have to buy them with paper money or mine which seems useless to joe citizen. Just want to know as I don't understand it.
 
Regular fiat money seems enough of a bad idea, am the suspicious type. Can anyone explain why virtual currency, especially the proliferation of them like litecoin, dogecoin etc. make them a good alternative to government paper money since it seems you have to buy them with paper money or mine which seems useless to joe citizen. Just want to know as I don't understand it.
I still don't get it either. I even tried reading up on it. All I can figure is a bitcoin is created for charging someone for doing some sort of transaction.
 
I believe that any such electronic currency is an extremely convoluted form of scam. They have no value behind them, represent nothing (no goods or real capital), fluctuate solely on speculation and benefit only the issuer and a lucky early adopter. In other words, they have all the attributes of a financial pyramid, just made much more difficult to understand.
 
I believe that any such electronic currency is an extremely convoluted form of scam. They have no value behind them, represent nothing (no goods or real capital), fluctuate solely on speculation and benefit only the issuer and a lucky early adopter. In other words, they have all the attributes of a financial pyramid, just made much more difficult to understand.

So Bitcoin is suspicious because it behaves like actual fiat? I have no interest in BC, but the more people try and explain how shady bitcoins are, the more they're made to sound like real money.
 
Real money is backed by nuclear weapons and government jackboot on the neck of wageslaves. Bitcoin is backed by the hopes of the existence of a bigger sucker than you.
 
Real money is backed by nuclear weapons and government jackboot on the neck of wageslaves. Bitcoin is backed by the hopes of the existence of a bigger sucker than you.

I think someone got lost trying to find their way back to infowars....
 
So Bitcoin is suspicious because it behaves like actual fiat? I have no interest in BC, but the more people try and explain how shady bitcoins are, the more they're made to sound like real money.
Here, I'll explain it for you.

Some guy has cryptography software which he has no idea what to do with. Then it hits him, "I'll make pretend money with it"! "If it's hard to find," (he reasons), "people will think it's worth something".

So then, he gets some robot malware to infect servers around the world with cryptological doggerel.

"I'll tell everybody there will only be so many made"."(That should further fool them into thinking it's worth something)";), he mumbles to himself in parenthesis.

"So, I'll stash a billion or so of these crypto-turds on my own server(s),(Which I forgot to hook to the web).. "And when the scam takes root to where "bitcoins" is actually worth something, I'll cash my hidden stash in, and walk away a billionaire"!



And no, bitcoin is nothing like real money, fiat or otherwise. A national currency, is based in the value of its trade-able resources. All it does is establish a barter/ exchange rate above a direct goods for goods basis, which is totally impractical, given the complexity of modern society.

Bitcoin's value is based on your ability to scam people out of whatever nation's currency they have for it.

If you try to supersede a nation's currency by undermining its value (*), in many countries, (including the US), you have committed treason. This is why, (to cite just one reason), when a nation falls, its currency becomes worthless.

(*) Sort of like the FUD being generated about the Federal Reserve system, which is being used as propaganda, to drive people toward "crypto-currency".
 
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You can't "hide" bitcoins. Every bitcoin ever mined is stored in the block chain which anyone can see. People do release new coins after mining some for themselves but everyone can see that they've done this, it is called premining.
 
You can't "hide" bitcoins. Every bitcoin ever mined is stored in the block chain which anyone can see. People do release new coins after mining some for themselves but everyone can see that they've done this, it is called premining.
It's still not a valid currency, so what?

Not only that, but people seem to be falling for more crap, which they've even had the the audacity to name, "Dogecoin". Dodgy-coin, get it?

Moving beyond that, I suppose you'd like me to believe the guy, (who wishes to remain anonymous), that started "bitcoin", did it out of the goodness of his own heart.
 
You can't "hide" bitcoins. Every bitcoin ever mined is stored in the block chain which anyone can see. People do release new coins after mining some for themselves but everyone can see that they've done this, it is called premining.
It's still not a valid currency, so what?

Not only that, but people seem to be falling for more crap, which they've even had the the audacity to name, "Dogecoin". Dodgy-coin, get it?

Moving beyond that, I suppose you'd like me to believe the guy, (who wishes to remain anonymous), that started "bitcoin", did it out of the goodness of his own heart.

What is a valid currency? Something backed by an object such as gold or silver? The USD isn't backed by anything except for the government's word.

I view BitCoin as something between a currency and an investment. In one hand you have a currency that is being accepted worldwide, with the the advantages of no transaction fees from one account to another and complete anonymity with your accounts. Yes people can view how much an account holds and its transactions, but they can only link things back to the serial number of your account. Somebody can easily create a new account (essentially a bank account) with the click of a button instead of having to go in, fill out forms, hand in personal information and have a minimum value in order to to avoid fees. On the other hand you have something that changes in value drastically and quite often, causing some risk to buying investing in BitCoin.

BitCoin to me is an alternative to PayPal. What is PayPal really? It's just a way to send money from your bank account to an online store or vendor. When you purchase something there is no money being shipped from your local bank to the PayPal HQ. The only change is a few values in a database somewhere. PayPal users face getting their accounts frozen for certain purchases (like buying BitCoin) and chargebacks from PayPal transactions. The worst part about it is when your PayPal account is frozen, you cannot open a new one, and any value you had on that account ($25, $50, $100, $500+) is now frozen too. Your Name, email, and Social security are bound to your account, preventing you from opening up new accounts. I just don't understand why a store would refuse to accept BitCoin. With no transaction fees, no chargebacks and a wider market of customers to pay for your products all it could do is put more money in your pocket.

I'm not hoping that one day it replaces the USD but instead I hope it is widely used alongside the USD like PayPal is today. I hope that someday I can buy some BitCoin, travel to europe and back and not lose money just from changing countries.
 
...[ [....I'm not hoping that one day it replaces the USD but instead I hope it is widely used alongside the USD like PayPal is today. I hope that someday I can buy some BitCoin, travel to europe and back and not lose money just from changing countries.
Nobody's been able to answer this for me, perhaps you. can.

I say the person, (or persons), who started bitcoin, did so for the enormous financial gains they stand to achieve. That makes it a pyramid scheme. Tell me why it isn't.
 
Bitcoins are like pogs and baseball cards. They are worth something to some people. They're only valuable to other victims of the scam that will trade their hard earned assets or production for it.
 
Nobody's been able to answer this for me, perhaps you. can.

I say the person, (or persons), who started bitcoin, did so for the enormous financial gains they stand to achieve. That makes it a pyramid scheme. Tell me why it isn't.

For it to be a pyramid scheme, the creator of BitCoin would have to promise people investing in BitCoins that they will see a positive investment by buying BitCoins. Clearly you and I can tell that getting into the market is a risky business, quite like the stock market.

With a pyramid scheme, you give money to a business with hopes of returning a profit. Profit is sometimes in the form of money but usually they will sell you on shares (Ex: You made $2000 in x amount of shares for said company). When the company liquidates, the shares retain no value and you are left with no physical object or representation of your money invested. With BitCoin, if it ever faded out or became unpopular (won't happen within the next 10 years) then you would still be left with a physical file / QR code. It would still have value (although minuscule) and you would still have a physical representation of the product you invested in.

This video might be out of date, but I feel it explains a lot about BitCoin. You should give it a watch, along with all others who feel BitCoin is shady.
 
This video might be out of date, but I feel it , (link removed) a lot about BitCoin. You should give it a watch, along with all others who feel BitCoin is shady.
Oh, so there's a, "Bitcoin Infomercial", is there? Pass.

Clearly the concept of, "bitcoin being valuable enough to mine for" , meets your 1st criterion of what constitutes a scam .

FWIW, the largest single holder of bitcoin, (at least at last count), is the FBI. And then there's the whole, "why 300 million dollars of them just plum upped and disappeared" fiasco. So, even in the highly doubtful circumstance that bitcoin has value, a good portion of its devotees are using it to criminal ends.

And if you're considering countering with the time worn, "the cops should be out chasing the real criminals, instead of harassing harmless internet smack dealers & child pornographers justification, please spare me.
 
Oh, so there's a, "Bitcoin Infomercial", is there? Pass.

Clearly the concept of, "bitcoin being valuable enough to mine for" , meets your 1st criterion of what constitutes a scam .

FWIW, the largest single holder of bitcoin, (at least at last count), is the FBI. And then there's the whole, "why 300 million dollars of them just plum upped and disappeared" fiasco. So, even in the highly doubtful circumstance that bitcoin has value, a good portion of its devotees are using it to criminal ends.

And if you're considering countering with the time worn, "the cops should be out chasing the real criminals, instead of harassing harmless internet smack dealers & child pornographers justification, please spare me.

How is "BitCoin being valuable enough to mine for" meet the criteria for a scam? BitCoin mining is just processing the transactions between accounts. When your computer is able to complete the algorithm for a transaction, you are rewarded with a small fraction of BitCoin.

So what if the FBI holds the largest wallet of BitCoins, they've confiscated it from illegal online activity. I have no problem with them pursing this action, but it's an invalid argument. Sure, they have $100 million + in BitCoin, but how much have they confiscated in USD for the same activities? The only difference is you can't log on a wallet tracker and view the FBI's bank account like you can their BitCoin wallet.

And about the whole $300 million in BitCoin just up and disappearing. This is done by companies who hold on to their user's BitCoins. Most websites will transfer the BTC to your desktop wallet (an application on your desktop so you have the physical file), but certain places will keep it on an online storage. It is sometimes advertised to be more secure, but in certain cases the companies will liquidate or shut down due to government interference. The $300 million that disappeared were from Chinese accounts, because of multiple Chinese exchanges closing down.
 
...[ ]....And about the whole $300 million in BitCoin just up and disappearing. This is done by companies who hold on to their user's BitCoins. Most websites will transfer the BTC to your desktop wallet (an application on your desktop so you have the physical file), but certain places will keep it on an online storage. It is sometimes advertised to be more secure, but in certain cases the companies will liquidate or shut down due to government interference. The $300 million that disappeared were from Chinese accounts, because of multiple Chinese exchanges closing down.
Yeah well, I suppose if it's only Chinese exchanges that made those bitcoins disappear, then that's OK, Right?

Here's a news flash, for all the FUD that you and your ilk are spreading about it, the Federal Reserve is still going strong.

And despite all the BS & FUD you and your ilk are spreading about how the fat cats are not allowing you to get rich with standard currency, every "fat cat" on the planet, like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Mark Zuckerberg, all got rich with damned old common US dollars.
 
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Yeah well, I suppose if it's only Chinese exchanges that made those bitcoins disappear, then that's OK, Right?

Here's a news flash, for all the FUD that you and your ilk are spreading about it, the Federal Reserve is still going strong.

And despite all the BS & FUD you and your ilk are spreading about how the fat cats are not allowing you to get rich with standard currency, every "fat cat" on the planet, like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Mark Zuckerberg, all got rich with damned old common US dollars.

I should've known by your name that this argument wasn't going anywhere. Obviously you haven't been reading what I've posted because nowhere in there do I hate on the USD, the federal reserve, or state that I'm trying to get rich like a "fat cat" through BitCoin. All I did was prove your arguments against BitCoin were invalid by providing facts. I don't even own any BitCoin. I'm just pointing out it's positives and compared it to the only other thing comparable... PayPal. I use the USD just as much as you or any other American, so stop getting your "Federal Reserve" panties up in a bunch.
 
I should've known by your name that this argument wasn't going anywhere.
It seems the your definition of an, "argument that goes nowhere", is an argument that doesn't end with the other party shouting, "master, you are so right, and I am so humbly wrong".

Don't hold your breath waiting for that outcome here.
 
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