Overstock.com seems to be doing just fine on the front of bitcoin acceptance. Since enabling bitcoin payments in early January, the company has brought in over $1 million USD worth of bitcoin purchases, and that number continues to go up.
A report from Business Insider, who recently spoke to the company’s CEO Patrick Byrne, indicated that the company is reeling in a good amount of money from purchase paid for in bitcoin.
“There was a huge surge [in Bitcoin spending] the first day, with people showing support,” Byrne said. “It’s since dropped to $20k to $30k per day, but it’s gradually increasing from there. It’s going well.”
For Overstock, Bitcoin acceptance is much more than a way to bring in more business. It’s genuinely helping the company combat significant credit card processing fees and prevent fraud.
“We do a really good job of preventing fraud, but Bitcoin makes fraud pretty much impossible,” Byrne was quoted as saying.
That’s because bitcoin transactions cannot be reversed. Once the money is sent, it’s sent, and it’s not coming back unless the recipient decides to return it.
Byrne also happens to be fan of the idea behind bitcoin and a decentralized monetary system.
“Bitcoin is good money,” he told me in an interview late last year. He’s even gone so far as to purchase several million dollars worth of the digital currency in late January.
“I think our country’s gotten under the thumb of Wall Street oligarchs. They’re enemies of the republic and Bitcoin represents a mass movement to get rid of the knuckleheads. There’s a huge political side to this that I endorse,” he told Business Insider. [source: Business Insider]