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Ebay Expands Accepted Digital Currencies, Says PayPal May One Day Incorporate BitCoin
First it was China hinting that where Silk Road failed in monetizing, pardon the pun, BitCoin, the world's most populous nation could soon take the lead. Then, none other than private equity titan Fortress said it had great expectations for the digital currency. Now, it is eBay's turn to announce that it is preparing to expand the range of digital currencies it accepts, adding that "its payment unit PayPal may one day incorporate BitCoin." But not just yet. FT reports that according to eBay CEO John Donahoe, "digital currency is going to be a very powerful thing."
The ecommerce group, which has more than 124m active users, is initially focusing on incorporating reward points from retailers’ loyalty schemes into its PayPal wallet.
“We are building the container so any retailer could put their loyalty points into the PayPal wallet,” Mr Donahoe said.
"There is a limit to how many cards you will carry, or remembering what points you have or don’t have,” he said. “But in a digital wallet, you can put 50 different loyalty cards.”
Mr Donahoe said Ebay was not expanding the PayPal wallet to include Bitcoins, “but we are watching it”.
“That same technology could accept other digital currencies,” he said.
While traditional retailers have so far balked at even the vaguest idea of considering allowing BitCoin as a viable payment method, all that would take to start a seismic shift in perception would be one angel idea "investor" to show that it can be done. That someone may well be eBay, which in a radical attempt to curry favor with "fringe" buyers and sellers, could open up its ecommerce platform, which started as an auction side for small traders, but may well become something far bigger.
eBay’s efforts raise the possibility that virtual currencies such as Bitcoin may in time move beyond a niche role in online commerce. Some enthusiasts believe Bitcoin and other currencies that exist outside the traditional banking system represent the future of online payments.
The work to expand the PayPal wallet underlines the emergence of virtual payment systems as the latest front in the battle between the global technology giants, including Google and Apple, to increase consumer reliance on their products.
Corporate initiatives have sought to drum up interest in digital wallets for use online and on the high street. Companies from mobile and technology groups to banks and retailers are racing to use new mobile wallets to upend the payments business.
Most of these efforts have focused on new ways of paying with traditional currencies such as the pound and the dollar, rather than with niche mediums of exchange such as loyalty points or Bitcoin.
Bitcoin transactions are conducted through a peer-to-peer network of computers, outside the traditional banking system and largely beyond the control of governments and monetary authorities. The digital currency is accepted by very few retailers at present.
Paradoxically, the more accepted BitCoin becomes in the conventional marketplace, the more subject to various forms of mandatory regulation, supervision and enforcement it, its purchases, and its users will be. So will BitCoin ultimately become a victim of its own success? That remains to be seen, although what we do know is that neither eBay nor anyone else tightly embedded within the monetary fiat framework, is even close to contemplating expanding the Petrodollar cycle to include gold or other precious metals as viable legal (or illegal) tender.
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fuck paypal.
What the hell do you people need to BUY via the internet? Groceries, fuel, shelter? Or junk?
Fucking doorknobs.
Stack On
People buy software that I have created via the internet. They must use Bitcoin to purchase. The 1st International Bank of TheHound73 is open 24/7/365, has no fees, is immune from fraud and chargebacks, and provides services in any city, hamlet or beachside shack with internet connection. I have been known to purchase meals, music and clothes with bitcoins but mostly I just wait and purchase the local currency after my coins have appreciated 50% or so.
Or PMs.....
coinabul.com
amagimetals.com
I've been averaging in my gold maples at about $200 an ounce this year due to the rise in BTC. How you doin?
You can have both - diversification is key, you doorknob.
If the Fed cannot monitor, control, regulate, or tax bit coins, they will issue penalties and fines for their use when discovered eventually. Does anyone doubt this?
It sickens me to think in 2009 i could have invested 1oz of silver in bitcoin and now have a million dollars or if i had invested one roll of silver in bitcoin less then a year ago i could have a monster box today.
Did you also cry that you didn't get into Pets.com, other internet bubble stocks, or real estate in 2003? Bubbles pop, eventually.
...or Apple, or Amazon, or Netflix, or Google.
If your aunt had balls she would have been your uncle.
i have consistently supported btc on here at zh as zh have become clearly less hostile and more open minded about the transparent open source technology. this is why zh is number 1 financial blog..with current nsa worldwide abuse of privacy the real open source movement provides a real way forward for international geo politically neutral technologies. If there is a future these concepts must be at the heart of it. Glass box approach is the only key to worldwide adoption a;; future real growth will only come from that understanding. bitcoin has paid for more than half my metals but dont bet the house on it but certainly make sure you have a toe in the water...
shhhh. The Tylers, with their half dozen posts in the last couple weeks about this tiny $2.5 billion industry, are slowly but stubbornly exposing ZH readers to it (who are perhaps not the fastest on uptake).
bitcoins-vast-overvaluation-seems-to-be-caused-by-usually-illegal-price-fixing
http://falkvinge.net/2013/09/13/bitcoins-vast-overvaluation-seems-to-be-...
and he wrote this 13 days ago "
I originally went all in at $7, went out at the same price on the way down, and went back all in at about $3. I've done extensive (bad) trading, and don't have my entire initial position, and far from enough to make me financially independent, but still a substantial amount (more than a year's average net pay, to give a ballpark number).
I'm currently all in."
http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1owf4v/im_rick_falkvinge_founder_o...
$233 new bitcoin high.
So who said it was going to zero again? Hmmmmm??? And those $69 btc I got last purchase are lookin miiiighty tasty about now :)
The crazy thing is, next year people will wish they had purchased some at $233.
no, the real crazy thing is next year bitcoin will be $23 and you'll scream that you thought you had value at 233.
In theory, I am very much in favor of Bitcoin but I have two reservations with it.
1) What Richard Dolan has coined, if you pardon the pun, as the "break-away civilization" has technology far in advance of what they release to the wild. A case in point is researchers in former beyond black projects, now in retirement, claiming that they had 650 MHz computers in the mid-60's. These weren't available to the public until 2000, 35 years later. The secret advances in quantum computing could break Bitcoin encryption in a heartbeat.
2) It is quite obvious that a primary strategy of the NWO is to replace national currencies with a one world digital currency, as well as eliminate any currency that offers anonymity. Decry FRN toilet paper as much as you care, but it still offers anonymity, and is slated to be eliminated. I live in southern Mexico as a retiree, and I cringe when I see poor people paying for their shit with debit cards. I buy everything retail with toilet paper. The NSA still doesn't know whether I wear boxers or briefs. Bitcoin could be a backdoor strategy to establish this one world digital currency while all we reality theorists are watching the IMF and the BIS.
As to the realities of the break-away civilization, if you think it absurd, do the research. You might start with Richard Dolan and Catherine Austin Fitts.
1. Switching to a more secure crytopgraphy can be done, if necessary. I highly doubt it will be necessary, though.
2. Bitcoin can be as anonymous as you want it to be, depending on your paranoia level. Since wallets are limitless, laundering bitcoins is trivial (Silk Road had it's own laundering service). Plus, you can send transactions over Tor.
Gold is Dead... Long Live Gold 2.0 (BTC)