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Bitcoin Payments Go Live At Overstock — Two Quarters Early
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 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.
You can tell how powerful someone is by the magnitude of the crime they can commit and be able to get away with.
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.