This is a win for bitcoin but its a huge win for Coinbase. Their payment flow works well and I am sure Overstock accepting it will make it an easier sell for other merchants.
Apparently, the process was so simple for you because both you (the buyer) and Overstock (the seller) operate via Coinbase. Clearly, the process would have been less smooth if you had had to use your own wallet.
Now suppose that for this reason, Coinbase (as a placeholder for any service like it) manages to establish itself as the go-to payment provider via BTC.
Then, one day, they decide that since they always have to convert back to USD for the merchant, maybe it would be interesting to allow their customers to just keep a USD balance with them. It reduces their exchange rate risk, and they could pass some of the savings on to you, making this a tempting offer.
Suddenly, BTC is not in the loop any more, though in the end all parties would still be better off (lower fees than in the current credit card system).
Such scenarios are why I'm doubtful that BTC will "take over the world" in the sense that many proponents think. I doubt it will become a predominant means of payment in any industrial nation, and there won't be a Bitcoin-standard (analogous to a gold standard) either.
Let me explicitly clarify: That does not mean that I believe BTC's value will necessarily drop to zero within the next 100 years. It might, but it might not.
If I go to Europe and buy something with my Visa debit card, my account is denominated in USD, but they do some forex and the merchant gets Euro.
If I go to Overstock and buy something with my Coinbase wallte, my account is denominated in BTC, but they do some trading and the merchant gets USD.
With any BTC payment service (including Coinbase), you also get the option to pay by QR code (if using a mobile wallet is easiest) or copy/pasting an address (if you're using a desktop/web client) which is at least as easy as redirecting to Coinbase, signing in (if you aren't already), and then redirecting back to the merchant's site.
Sure, anybody can run a web server and host their own site, but in reality millions of teenagers just use tumblr instead. Same with email.
The commoners will never be "decentralized." You'll always have Powerful Central Thing in the middle.
The world is naturally deflationary. The price of things falls over time with increases in production efficiency, economies of scale and return on investment from capital stock.
It's only with persistent antics of rulers and governments that the current case of persistent inflation is the lived experience of most people. Going back through history, many generations on earth lived in a time when 'things weren't cheaper back then', but then all the other generations have suffered through a time when rulers/governments have granted themselves a monopoly on the monetary system, usually for the purposes of waging war or building grand monuments to themselves.
What is different about bitcoin is that it is essentially un-monopolisable like gold, but much more suited to high frequency, remote transactions. I don't have a dog in the fight but I set fascinated on the sidelines.
No it isn't, you're forgetting that with deflation comes less wages as well. Deflation is the whole economy, not just a few sectors.
> Price deflation means that the value of your currency is rising as compared with goods you want to buy.
Which is meaningless when you're getting paid less as well.
> It's only with persistent antics of rulers and governments
Alright, tinfoil hat guy, we're done. I need no lessons in Bitcoin from you, I hold them and actively trade them, you don't know anything about them I don't already know.
A strange comment. I read a lot on the history of monetary systems and currencies, and I'm yet to come across an instance where widespread inflation (and a severe decline in economic activity and living standards) wasn't caused by a ruler or a government deciding to debase a currency to either fight a war or an attempt to fix mistakes they had already made with public spending. That was true 2,000 years ago, it's been true in most centuries since, and it's certainly true now. It would take a particularly odd view of history to conclude that rulers and governments manipulate currencies to help out their citizens, rather than to appropriate from them.
Note that I am interested in Bitcoin precisely because of this history, because it represents something genuinely new.
Your comment leads me to believe you confuse money with wealth. If inflation is stealing your savings, you're saving wrong. Cash is not for saving, it's for spending. Save assets, not cash.
Why would you get paid less? Deflation means the wage you get paid is worth more. Inflation means the wage you get paid is worth less.
> Why would you get paid less?
Because you are not an island, when an economy suffers from deflation the prices of goods and services have to be dropped and salaries get dropped as well because that's how business works. Your employer isn't going to sell his stuff for less but keep paying you more.
> Deflation means the wage you get paid is worth more. Inflation means the wage you get paid is worth less.
Yes, I know what the words mean. But the effects of inflation and deflation are far more complicated than just the meaning of the words.
For Aaron: Aside from the 53 money transmission agent licenses both are required to hold, but only PayPal actually has.
Having a Bitcoin bank as a middleman is probably the best model for the majority of payments. But Bitcoin's appeal lies in its flexibility. Bitcoin is just a protocol: payments can go through a bank, but they don't have to.
One of the primary advantages of Bitcoin is its decentralization. I realize that Bitcoin != Coinbase and that Bitcoin provides a foundation for many potential services, but if everybody starts using Coinbase/<insert third-party name here> to handle their transactions, what's the difference? Where is the decentralization?
...Not that I think it's a bad thing if a bunch of Bitcoin transactions (especially microtransactions) go off the blockchain, I just wanted to point out that off-blockchain transactions weren't inherent to accepting Bitcoin through Coinbase.
So yes, there is actual bitcoin transaction going on if you don't have coinbase account.
You can't spend Bitcoin without the public knowing, and that goes for double spending as well.
However, you wouldn't want to, for example, run a gambling site that accepts and pays out bets immediately after they show up as 'unconfirmed' because you wouldn't have recourse if they managed to double spend.