Overstock.com sees new market in Bitcoins

March 11, 2022

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Salt Lake City-based Overstock.com
Inc. says it’s the first major retailer to accept digital Bitcoins as
payment for goods.
The $1 billion company is tapping into a new
market of buyers who use the online currency, and other major retailers
will lose market share if they don’t follow suit and accept Bitcoins,
Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne said.
"I’ve been hearing from people
all over the world — cult followers of Bitcoin — who say they are going
to shift all of their shopping to Overstock.com," Byrne told CBS
affiliate KUTV in Salt Lake City.
Bitcoin users buy digital money
and load it onto a virtual wallet. They can buy things online without
having to enter their credit card information.
Unlike
government-issued money, the value of Bitcoin fluctuates rapidly. To
protect itself, Overstock uses a Bitcoin broker that immediately
exchanges the digital coins into dollars.
Overstock started
accepting the virtual currency Jan. 9, and Byrne said the company almost
immediately grossed $100,000 in Bitcoin orders.
"You’ll see
Amazon jump on board. You’ll see other large companies — they have to
because they cannot concede this whole section of the market to us,"
Byrne said.
Amazon.com Inc. does not accept Bitcoins and has no plans to do so, company spokeswoman Julie Law said
Monday.
The
cybercurrency has existed for years as a kind of Internet oddity,
counting supporters among tech-savvy libertarians, currency geeks and
online speculators. Yet increasing acceptance is bringing it into
mainstream use. Bitcoins are created, distributed, and authenticated
independently of any bank or government.
The currency’s
cryptographic features make it virtually immune from counterfeiting, and
its relative anonymity holds out the promise of being able to spend
money across the Internet without fear of governments.
The
linchpin of the system is a network of "miners" — high-end computer
users who supply the Bitcoin network with the processing power needed to
maintain a transparent, running tally of all transactions. The tally is
one of the most important ways in which the system prevents fraud, and
the miners are rewarded for supporting the system with an occasional
helping of brand new Bitcoins.
___
Information from: KUTV-TV, http://www.kutv.com/

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