The importance of this news cannot be overstated. Overstock.com is the first "main stream" company (my mom shops there) that accepts bitcoin that I can think of.
Wow. Good job, overstock.com team for getting this done so quickly!
Wow. Good job, overstock.com team for getting this done so quickly!
Sure, it's a nice milestone for bitcoin, but the importance seems, well, kinda overstated. I mean, a decade ago a bunch of big ecommerce sites took Flooz too, right?
But hey, I thought the iPod was too expensive and Twitter was useless when they launched, so what do I know.
> 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.
I cringed reading this, mostly because normal people don't feel quite comfortable with sentiment like "fighting the machine."
Get outside and talk to some folks. Very few are friends of "the machine."
When you short a stock, you have to borrow the stock first, and then sell it. Obviously at some point you will buy back the stock, hopefully at a lower price so you make a profit, and then return the stock to the original owner.
When you naked short sell, you don't borrow the stock first, you just claim you do. Everybody trades pieces of paper without settling the trade. This might seem convenient but someone can abuse this.
For example, sell a billion shares in a stock which you don't own / have not borrowed, at a fire-sale price, thereby causing the share price of a company to crash because people start panicking once they see huge volumes being traded at a low price.
NYSE is owned by Intercontinentalexchange Group which is publicly listed.
It's really, really awesome.
Paypal is frustrating; I have to make an account, she has to make an account, I have to fund my account, and to top it all off, Paypal can (and does!) refuse to transfer money sometimes. Absurd!
This personal touch is the foundation of all that makes bitcoin worthwhile, in my opinion. The network is established and I can use it to send value to another individual or company, without going through any other intermediate. This is absolutely huge, in the same way that email is an easier way to send a message (instead of making a phone call) is absolutely huge (for email).
People may choose to use services (like Coinbase) to make it easier, but they don't have to.
Think the Internet, vs. all the proprietary networks at the same time (Microsoft, Compuserve...)
There are other issues that make it less convenient than amazon one-click (like funding that wallet). But Bitcoin-Qt really isn't the problem.
But your point stands re: digital goods. One use case I was thinking Bitcoin might be good for is micropayments of content. Replacing paywalls with a one-time fee to view the article or get access to the whole site for an hour/day/week. Cookie the browser with no registration. May be ideal for porn.
The challenge, aside from the lack of users that have Bitcoin, is that people don't like getting nickel and dimed. Sites may not adopt it because they can get more money from fewer users paying more on monthly subscriptions, versus more users paying less for one-time transactions.
Amazon's one-click is brilliantly easy because I've already done the work of adding my name, physical address, and credit card information into my Amazon profile, and I'm already logged-in. My browser (via LastPass/1Password) is saving my password, so the login page is almost no friction at all. With Amazon Payments, I can re-use this to quickly checkout at any number of places. Google and PayPal work similarly.
With Bitcoin everywhere as a 1-click, I still need to have my name and physical address put in, plus I probably need to create an account. Bitcoin doesn't make this process easier.
Maybe Coinbase can take this on and store my info. But isn't this just making Coinbase Checkout and almost identical to the other competing platforms? What makes it compelling to use Bitcoin? Keep in mind I'm no longer getting 1% cash back (which can be worth hundreds a year), and I'm SOL if the vendor screws me over. Plus, I might need to do the stored-value dance as Coinbase needs to ETF some additional funds from my checking account, and is just one more thing to keep track of.