Submitted by Michael Krieger of Liberty Blitzkrieg blog [3],
Upon the conclusion of the Senate hearing on Bitcoin this past November, I tweeted that I thought we had entered Phase 2 of the Bitcoin story. A month later, following news that Andreessen Horowitz had led an venture capital investment of $25 million in Coinbase, [4] I wrote:
As I tweeted at the time, I think Bitcoin began phase two of its growth and adoption cycle upon the conclusion of the Senate hearings last month (I suggest reading: My Thoughts on the Bitcoin Hearing [5]).
I think phase two will be primarily characterized by two things. More mainstream adoption and ease of use, as well as increasingly large investments by venture capitalists. In the past 24 hours, we have seen evidence of both.
Phase 2 so far is going even more positively than I had expected. Overstock.com accelerated its plans to accept BTC by many months, and the early rollout has been a massive success. The company’s CEO just tweeted:
#Bitcoin [6]'s first full day on @overstock [7].com was a huge success: 840 orders, $130,000 in sales. Almost all new customers. #stunned [8]
— Patrick M. Byrne (@OverstockCEO) January 10, 2014 [9]
This is absolutely huge news and any retail CEO worth their salt will immediately begin to look into Bitcoin adoption.
I hope financial publications that missed the biggest financial story of 2013 continue to mock it with covers of unicorns and waterfalls. It’s the most bullish thing I can imagine.
Furthermore, the purchased items are varied...
Items most purchased by #bitcoin [10] users at @overstock [7]: sheets, mobile phone cases, flash drives, bath towels. I expected more video cards.
— Patrick M. Byrne (@OverstockCEO) January 11, 2014 [11]
The apparent ease of acceptance and use has spurred demand for Bitcoin itself which has pushed back above $1000...
[12]