19 Dec 2013 / Newsbtc – In late October, there was a brief mention of retailer Overstock.com in a New York Times piece that noted the online retailer was considering accepting bitcoin, but decided they would put a hold on that objective (partially due to the fact that bitcoin is still a ‘gray area’ in terms of financial law).
It would appear that Overstock is once again revving their engines on that front, with the company telling newsBTC that they plan to begin accepting bitcoin in the second half of 2014 — making them the first big retailer in the space to do so.
The announcement comes directly from Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne, who spoke to me briefly on Wednesday in an interview by phone. Byrne told me that the company is still working out the logistics of accepting the currency, but notes that they may plan to work independently of bitcoin payment processors like Coinbase or BitPay by implementing a proprietary system to manage the transactions. The bottom line: Overstock hasn’t decided yet. Byrne says Overstock will have no marginal cost in the implementation, so it’s something they’ll keep plugged in. If after a year or two Overstock sees minimal bitcoin purchases, that may be the time to pull that plug.
“Bitcoin is good money,” Byrne told me…… Read more
http://newsbtc.com/2013/12/19/overstock-com-begin-accepting-bitcoin-2nd-half-2014/
