Overstock does nearly $1 million in Bitcoin sales in first month

[Shawn Knight]

Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne is no stranger to being an early adopter of technology. He was among the first to purchase to one of Tesla’s Model S electric cards five years ago and apparently, some things never change. As you may recall, Byrne’s company recently became the first major online retailer to accept Bitcoins.

So, how’s that working out for them thus far? Pretty good, actually.

According to Byrne, the site processed $870,000 in sales from almost 4,000 orders paid with Bitcoin. Strangely enough, the most popular item among virtual currency aficionados is bed sheets followed by computer hardware and mobile phone accessories.

Of course, becoming the first major retailer to accept Bitcoin was no easy task. Payment processor Coinbase flew an employee out to Salt Lake City to help work with Overstock to make it a reality. They basically locked 40 people in a room for a week to work out the kinks as becoming the first was bound to deliver a ton of positive press and business.

But Byrne’s interest in Bitcoin extends well past an extra payment method for Overstock. The CEO liquidated several million dollars worth of his holdings in gold and converted it to Bitcoin. He said he ultimately wants to be able to pay vendors and employees in Bitcoin too if they choose. But why is he doing all of this?

Because he wants to further the cause of Bitcoin, plain and simple.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/55763-overstock-does-nearly-1-million-in-bitcoin-sales-in-first-month.html

 

[fps4ever]

$1,000,000 today is tomorrow's $600,000 going by bitcoin standards.

 

[Brodo Laggins]

"Because he wants to further the cause of Bitcoin, plain and simple."

Bitcoin payments are cheaper to process than credit card payments and the CEO has libertarian viewpoints. Nothing wrong with either of those things but I wouldn't say it's quite that simple at all. Definitely more to the picture.

$1,000,000 today is tomorrow's $600,000 going by bitcoin standards.

Not with Coinbase and the like.

 

[Guest]

Overstock = overprice, checked a few items and its always more expensive there than anywhere else.

 

[Guest]

So someone please tell me why the government is allowing Bitcoin?

Bitcoin transactions (at least for now) can easily go unreported and tax-free. And Bitcoin is gaining interest and popularity rapidly - even Bitcoin ATMs are showing up. It's almost like an entirely new currency in it's infancy - maybe with the possibility of someday replacing the battered US dollar.

I'm definitely not a conspiracy theorist, but something sure seems odd here...very odd.

 

[Guest]

Definitely more to the picture.

Yes, there is definitely much more to this picture.

 

[Guest]

One of the first to purchase an Electric Card huh?

Nice proof reading there.

 

[Guest]

"So someone please tell me why the government is allowing Bitcoin?

Bitcoin transactions (at least for now) can easily go unreported and tax-free. And Bitcoin is gaining interest and popularity rapidly - even Bitcoin ATMs are showing up. It's almost like an entirely new currency in it's infancy - maybe with the possibility of someday replacing the battered US dollar.

I'm definitely not a conspiracy theorist, but something sure seems odd here...very odd."

-You sure you aren't talking about cash? Do you think people pay for heroin with a debit card? Wow...amazing how much you trust a piece of paper, printed at a frantic rate with no backing of real value whatsoever, that folks who love to avoid tax use on a daily basis.

 

[davidfourman1]

So someone please tell me why the government is allowing Bitcoin?

Bitcoin transactions (at least for now) can easily go unreported and tax-free. And Bitcoin is gaining interest and popularity rapidly - even Bitcoin ATMs are showing up. It's almost like an entirely new currency in it's infancy - maybe with the possibility of someday replacing the battered US dollar.

I'm definitely not a conspiracy theorist, but something sure seems odd here...very odd.

You're right. And you haven't seen nothing yet.

There is no conspiracy, it's just a new way of doing things that will eventually replace the old, whether the government likes it or not.

 

[davidfourman1]

So someone please tell me why the government is allowing Bitcoin?

Bitcoin transactions (at least for now) can easily go unreported and tax-free. And Bitcoin is gaining interest and popularity rapidly - even Bitcoin ATMs are showing up. It's almost like an entirely new currency in it's infancy - maybe with the possibility of someday replacing the battered US dollar.

I'm definitely not a conspiracy theorist, but something sure seems odd here...very odd.

You're right. And you haven't seen nothing yet.

There is no conspiracy, it's just a new way of doing things that will eventually replace the old, whether the government likes it or not.

 

[davislane1]

"Bitcoin transactions (at least for now) can easily go unreported and tax-free."

To which the only appropriate response is, so?

 

[Guest]

If someone steals your BitCoin, from your account, there is nothing that you can do to get them back.

 

[Guest]

Mt Gox, which acts like a self regulated bank for many BitCoin users, recently stopped people from spending their BitCoin. The currency very quickly crashed from a value of $800 to around $200.

 

[Tawhid]

Bit coin is same as US DOLLER, actually better cause there can only be limited number, earlier in USD they used to write United States will pay to bearer http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2b/US_$100_1880_United_States_Note.jpg
so to print 100 doller note Us needed to have 100$ resource it 100$ worth gold, to resolve that issue that inflate value of doller suppose u was getting x amount of gold 20 years age u will get 1/2x gold now, but to simplify it more so they dont need to pay u anything they now made it legal tender, so it means ur money has actually no meaning to state u cant buy or demand anything from state with it.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/64/USDnotes.png

so usd is as useless as bitcoin, because there is no value to it, if u dont need reserve to print it its value less. but for vertual items like microsoft windows u can actually value virtual items with bit coin like music, software, but for thing that has value after dismantle like gold or metal products I think bit coin is useless as doller.

 

[SchrödingersCat]

If someone steals your BitCoin, from your account, there is nothing that you can do to get them back.

If someone steals your BitCoin from your account you did something wrong. Consequences are scary huh?

 

[Guest]

I think that it is against the law to make US Dollars. Plus you can only have a limited number in circulation. If you put twice as many in circulation, then they will be worth half as much.

With Crypto-currencies, you can keep making them forever; as long as you are wealthy enough afford the computational power. Once you reach your limit, just invent a new currency, and play pump & dump price fixing (which I think is illegal to do on US Dollars).

 

[Guest]

"Bitcoin transactions (at least for now) can easily go unreported and tax-free. And Bitcoin is gaining interest and popularity rapidly - even Bitcoin ATMs are showing up. It's almost like an entirely new currency in it's infancy - maybe with the possibility of someday replacing the battered US dollar."

Oh come on. Go read up about how Bitcoin works.

ALL transactions are in a PUBLIC ledger for EVER.

You want something untraceable? Cash. Good old fashioned cash is impossible to trace.

Bitcoin as a currency would actually make it easier to police tax evasion and such.

 

[Guest]

I think that it is against the law to make US Dollars. Plus you can only have a limited number in circulation. If you put twice as many in circulation, then they will be worth half as much.

With Crypto-currencies, you can keep making them forever; as long as you are wealthy enough afford the computational power. Once you reach your limit, just invent a new currency, and play pump & dump price fixing (which I think is illegal to do on US Dollars).

Oh the irony.

When the big banks got bailed out a few years back, they essentially just made billions and billions of dollars. It's easy for the fed to create money - they just change a number in their computer system!

You're quite right that it's possible to just create cryptocurrencies, but it is NOT possible to just create more of an existing crypto, such as Bitcoin. Bitcoin will continue to be slowly made until it hits its hard limit, and nothing anyone can do (short of finding and replacing every single bitcoin client in the world) can create more.

Please, research the topics (bitcoin and USD) before you make such comments. There are many short, informative videos on youtube that explain it very well.

 

[Ankit Johari]

How do coffee shops and fast food go about using bitcoin? would it still need to be on a merchant account or a personal enterprise account?

 

[Guest]

Yes, there is a ledger. However the thing about Bitcoin accounts; is that they are anonymous. The account owner can easily remain untraceable.

As for making Bitcoin; everything has its critical mass, even dollar. As for researching, I read somewhere that you can go on making DOGE coin after it reaches its maximum difficulty. I am sure that they will run out of numbers one day though.

 

[Guest]

My understanding of the reasoning of this “bailout” principle is that the bank (or country), borrows money because they have run out of it. They are not just accumulating billions and billions of dollars. The “bailout” is to make up for the economical shortfall of money in circulation.