Bitcoin Forum

At the Citi Internet, Media & Telecommunications conference, Netflix chief financial officer David Wells expressed his optimism towards Bitcoin, and how it is shaping to become the global currency of most major industries.

According to Market Realist, a prominent investment research establishment which covered the event, Wells stated (http://marketrealist.com/2016/10/netflix-introducing-payment-options-internationally/):

“It sure would be nice to have Bitcoin in terms of a global currency that you could use globally.”

Why Netflix is Interested in Bitcoin

As MR researcher Shirley Pelts explained in a 5-part series entitled “Tools in Netflix's Wheelhouse to Meet International Challenges (http://marketrealist.com/2016/10/netflix-introducing-payment-options-internationally/),” Netflix is actively looking into Bitcoin payments due to increasing cases of fraud and criminal activity revolving around gift and prepaid card payments.

In contrast to many streaming and digital content distribution networks, Netflix has provided both its users and content creators with a wide range of payment options, outside the traditional field of banking and credit card payments.

For instance, users from underbanked countries such as Argentina and India or users under the age of 18 that illegible for bank and credit card applications can purchase a variety of gift cards from physical locations such as gasoline stations and convenience stores to pay for Netflix services.

In June 2015, Libran Research & Consulting and prepaid commerce solution provider CashStar, co-released a study entitled “Gift Cards Through the Eyes of Consumer (http://www.pymnts.com/news/payment-methods/2016/cashstar-libran-gift-card-study/),” to analyze the ecosystem and industry surrounding gift card distribution.

In its research, the two firms stated that gift card sales surpassed the $129 bln margin in 2015, emphasizing its rapid growth compared to other conventional payment tools including credit and debit card services.

However, like many other financial tools, a rapid increase in growth also relates to an increasing number of fraud cases, due to the emergence of hackers and criminals trying to bypass the system.

Security veteran and cryptography expert, Tony Martin-Vegue wrote in a study that bypassing gift card security and essentially double spending its balance is not a difficult operation and can be completed with fairly shallow knowledge of security.

“This type of fraud is fairly low-level and does not result in a huge loss to the merchant, but is quite a shock to the customer when the recipient of a gift card tries to redeem it and finds that the balance is zero,” cutives/risk-management/gift-card-fraud-how-its-committed-and-why-its-so-lucrative/]stated Martin-Vegue (http://http[Suspicious link removed).

As a response, the Netflix financial team and CFO David Wells are looking into Bitcoin, which can be considered as a more practical and cost-efficient alternative to gift cards.

https[Suspicious link removed]cutive-wants-bitcoin-as-global-currency-considers-it-cost-effective

Seems like netflix soon gonna start accepting bitcoin which will be really nice news for all of us actually to the users from countries where paypal like payment processors are restricted as well as don't have any working international visa/mastercard debit cards. Streaming of netflix should be expanded to meet users from all around the world and allowing bitcoin can be one way for netflix to achieve this worldwide coverage.

Isn't this old news? and netflix haven't started accepting bitcoin yet.  :o

It makes a lot of sense for Netflix business model to accept Bitcoin, because it has the potential to streamline their payment channels. Since Netflix delivers a digital service worldwide, Bitcoin is a natural match. With Bitcoin it becomes a lot easier to accept payments worldwide without having to care about the various capital restrictions in emerging countries, where Netflix's streaming is in high demand. It is also a win from a user perspective, because once users are into Bitcoin, sending payments is more seamless than first acquiring gift card.

The same way Netflix is challenging traditional TV, Bitcoin is challenging traditional banking. Given their huge user base, Netflix accepting Bitcoin will clearly be a great leap towards mainstream BTC acceptance.

ya.ya.yo!

This could be big. Not only do Netflix and Bitcoin obviously suit one another, but this could represent major in-roads into "closing the loop" of Bitcoin being treated by businesses as a currency instead of as a hot potato. I say this because a Hollywood film distributor (Lionsgate) announced they would begin accepting Bitcoin last year, and people like Netflix are the customers of people like Lionsgate. Hodling....

That's what I thought too. I seem to remember this being mentioned a relatively long time ago.

Like so many other businesses, Netflix relies on people not being bothered enough to cancel their subscription. If I had to manually do it every month I'd certainly think twice. I wonder how they plan to get around that little bit of psychology.

Well this is might be the good news for the community, if netflix would accept bitcoin, so bad netflix has been blocked by my internet provider, the issue is about the permit but with bitcoin and vpn i think i could use their service again, hoping netflix would start accept bitcoin soon.

Netflix "opened the possibility of accepting Bitcoin payments" on January 6th, but I couldn't find an option to pay with them on the Netflix website yet.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/netflix-opens-to-bitcoin




Netflix would probably use the same prepay system for Bitcoin that it has for gift cards. It deducts the monthly charge from a gift card balance each month, and I assume stops providing films to anyone with an empty balance. For Bitcoin it could ask for payment once a month, then stop providing films to anyone who doesn't pay.

Although Netflix relies on people not being bothered enough to cancel their debit card subscription it seems to terminate gift card subscriptions when a gift card stops paying.

https://help.netflix.com/en/node/24928?catId=en%2F130

If they are so keen on Bitcoin, why then have they not started to accept Bitcoin yet? The regulatory framework and "currency" status are

holding them back. They could have opened it up through payment processors, but they did not. What is still holding them back? The

only reason I can think of, is Bitcoin's bad reputation. { Media induced lies }  >:(

yeah but once the pressure comes on from the program makers which will eventually happen we may see netflix back down from this stance.  it would not surprise me if this happened in the next 8 months.

So... What is this?
Fear of the SNGULARDTV or something like that?

If you don't change with the world, someone can take your place...

I don't currently subscribe to them, but I've kinda been wanting to for a while now.  I would be happy if they started taking bitcoin, but I can't say I'd use it for sure.  Fiat works just as well if not better,  but I might spend bitcoin just to show support.

Ok, this might be a problem.

Do companies like Netflix have any obligations to obey television broadcast regulations? Or, put another way, do these net based TV services voluntarily conform to broadcast rules about proving the age of their subscribers, just to show good faith in case they get criminally investigated?

Debit/credit cards are not always available to those below a certain age, so that makes a pretty decent de facto proof of age. I'm just imagining what might happen if a young teenager with authoritarian parents discovered they'd been using Bitcoin to access Netflix when they were told it was forbidden. Netflix don't need that problem.

I'd say this might only be a problem in the US or the EU, who are babysitting their citizen with all kinds of consumer protection rules. In the rest of the world, governments will not care much about it. And even if there are laws and the willingness to enforce them, they won't be easily enforceable, because Netflix doesn't reside there.

Besides that other possibilities to verify the age of viewers exist. It's always possible to separately require some kind of age verification. Currently, gift cards do not offer a reliable proof of age either - they can be easily sold to minors in the secondary market. So if Netflix would face strict proof of age requirements they would have been required to introduce age checks already.

And even if you proof that the payee is an adult, it's still possible that the viewers are minors. So any age verification requirements are pretty much pointless.

ya.ya.yo!

Agree to disagree... Legislation like this are there to protect, but people still bypass these restrictions. Kids use their parents credit cards

and some parents do not give a shit. { Regulation do not stop bad parents, it just slows them down } We were all young at one stage and

we found ways to bend the system. In my country the legal age to use alcohol is 18, but kids still drink and even use drugs at parties. The

regulation makes it illegal and punishable, so it is only a deterrent not a permanent solution.  :( 

Keep in mind that this is a CoinTelegraph article. I don't pay much attention to CoinTelegraph because most of what they produce is just speculation and embellishment.

it's another good news for bitcoin user because when there will be mass adoption and more user in bitcoin then only its price will go up and we will start using bitcoin in Satoshi unit and then majority of the website will accept bitcoin and we can use bitcoin much more then present..

Until Netflix begins to accept payment with bitcoin we must be careful and take this with a grain of salt, since implementation of bitcoin in a subscription service does not seem that straightforward to me.

It will be cool to have Netflix on our side since they are huge and very mainstream, but we will not be ready to take those services until we have the lightning network so I hope that developers hurry up and make a good job with this to start making Bitcoin as mainstream as possible, even tho I don't see how it will become mainstream until governments ban cash so e have a real incentive to use Bitcoin in the developed work.

Why would the netflix executives wants bitcoin as a global currency since netfilx is a US based business model and you cannot subscribe to netflix without a US based VPN if you are not from the US,so i dont understand the logic behind it .

Well yes they haven't, i am sure they still think about that. It took long time for steam to accept bitcoins so that's nothing strange that netflix takes some time to start accepting them

It's good to have executives at large companies keeping bitcoin in the conversation and in a positive way. We need more of this to help promote bitcoin.

Erm... pretty sure both CoinDesk (http://www.coindesk.com/netflix-cfo-bitcoin-payments/) and Cryptocoinnews (https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/netflix-cfo-bitcoin/) both posted this story back in January.  Why is CoinTelegraph only just posting it now?


10 months old, yes.

Netflix are known if the bitcoin can be a potential field for their business because the people are just needed for clicking their mouse for wanna using netflix. I guess bitcoin are be a potential farm field for the online companies in this time because offering an easiest way.

According to Netflix, it is available in every country except China, Crimea, North Korea and Syria.

STFU Mr Wells and go using it globally. Bitcoin IS a global currency, that you can use globally.

that's right if this for real bitcoin will make some huge exposure knowing netflix have good network and seeing bitcoin can be one of their mode
of payments it such a good news there mate.

oh i didnt know that netflix was available elsewhere,i thought you can view only with an US based IP

I hope this will happen. Imagine the price of bitcoin, if bitcoin will use as global currency, the price will be skies the limit. That is why I'm investing more in bitcoin right now.

This will bring some publicity I guess, but that does not mean that such a move will generate more adoption in the population, probably what will happen is that us, the bitcoiners will pay for Netflix using bitcoin and that will be it.

Old news, still nothing new heard from them but would love to see some more actions from companies like NetFlix.


Well IMO the price won't be much affected.

LOL, Bitcoin already is a global currency. If the Netflix executive wants more people and businesses around the world to use it, then he should put his money where his mouth is and start accepting it.

And saying that Bitcoin is cost effective is like saying water is wet. Duh.

Sure the huge security around bitcoin its something that will atract any big companie inside, the frauds of the credits cards and debit its huge market, sure removing those options and put bitcoin would be better to the company. I do hope they advance into the adoption of bitcoin, i do like Netflix.

Its interesting but to be honest I see some wild technology swings that may make netflix a sony walkman if things progress rapidly enough.
It may also just be some one that understands the main demographics of their user base and playing into that.

Any company coming forward to claim acceptance is a plus in my books but I tend to be a glass half full type.

Huh. I see. Was wondering if this was a new development or something.
Even thought this would finally lead to netflix actually accepting bitcoin as payment method.
Turns out it's just a rehash. lol. WTH.

*It's taking netflix quite a long time to actually implement accepting bitcoin. It's all 'wants', 'think', but doesn't actually backs it up.
I hope they really do it. sigh.

nope. you can watch it in most countries you wash up in. the same account will allow you to access the local version worldwide.

the main problem is that the American version has way, way more content than most other countries due to licensing. most people were hacking their dns to watch the American version from abroad. Netflix are now wise to that and are trying to stop it.

The netflix executive are need updating about their news....  :P seems like the executive class are not trying for opening their browser until this time and lack of the updating the latest news about bitcoin....  :D

It is great but if Netflix is serious about that then first they should make a deal with bitcoin that you can also use bitcoin t pay your membership on Netflix. I am sure that Netflix wants this to happen so that more people around the world can make use of Netflix.
They can then pay with Bitcoin if the currency in there country is not accepted.

This is a good news for all cryptoners and let keep fingers cross, hope and wishing btc will be global currency :)

thinking from many aspects,factor,and how good it is for the business,indeed time is needed before netflix fully implement bitcoin officially,there's nothing wrong if a huge company thinking about their movement,and yeah it's also happening to the steam

the information you are talking about was not leak or anything like that. before steam telling the public they are accepting bitcoin they sent Email to their developers (literary anybody who has ever made anything for steam community shops) and told them we are going to accept bitcoin and one of those recipient of that email shared the email with public.

good information and good news
if netflix support payment use bitcoin
but until now this my country not support payment use bitcoin

It would be cool to be able to buy movies and series with bitcoin, there is a big market there to be made because there is a lot of people that always travel and currency changes in countries are annoying as hell, with bitcoin you can bypass all of that.

Video on demand, streaming and Bitcoin would indeed fit perfectly.
This is the same with almost any digital good and services which can be bought or rented.
In a few years it will be normal behaviour to use crypto currencies, and hopefully Bitcoin as the main one, for online purchases.

Not only will it apply in the subscription based video/audio streaming businesses, but this type of subscription based business model might even be applied successfully to online poker and online sports betting. Instead of collecting money from the users thru the rake or the vig, the users can pay the gambling site ahead of time thru a monthly or yearly subscription. This could make it cheaper for the more active gamblers and it is also an opportunity for the online bookies to offer better odds because there is no vig.

I thought so too several months ago but what I didn't know is that the situation have changed significantly in 2016 when it had become available everywhere worldwide outside of Mainland China, Syria, North Korea and the territory of Crimea. So no need of using VPN to stream Netflix anymore.

Btw a friend of mine told me that you can buy a lifetime Netflix account for a fraction of a US Dollar in BTC on a Darknet market. So whether the Netflix CEOs are aware of this or not people are already buying Netflix accounts for BTC.

In a way something like what you are describing is happening already, since the bitcoin casino industry is flourishing since they can accept customers from all over the world and their users don’t have to worry about possible legal repercussions on their countries.

This is a very good news to bitcoin, like everybody here speculates bitcoin will never go down, now you should believe in bitcoin more as you can see everyday we hear good news about bitcoin adoption. Bitcoin is moving toward main stream of adoption.

and theirs a lots more to come as it is really moving good in the main stream im looking forward to adopt in any aspect of the web
so we can enjoy many things using our beloved btc.

I think you're right cos netflix is a company with good reputation and they will not to loose their reputation. Therefore,we all have home work to do cos bitcoin catch the attention of netflix thru cryptoners.

I'm so excited to see this thread and this is one of the best good news I have seen on this forum so far. I can't wait for the Netflix to endorse bitcoin :)

Bitcoin or other crypto payment coins would definitely enable people from emerging markets to make online payments,
as long as there was some sort of service for them to convert their fiat currency to electronic coin.
This will still be a barrier, but it provides a huge opportunity for a company based in some of those areas.

You can see the previous page if someone is already mentioning about some news if Netflix is already accepting bitcoin payment but there is no more clarification about that. and I guess it's so vague for me. try for read before make any posted.

Finally someone mentioned and admit that standard FIAT payments can be more crooked and problematic that cryptocurrency payments.

This kind of fraud will continue as long as credit card will be used.  Carding is so popular and hard to deal with that bitcoin might be a real solution this time.

if Netflix and other internet giants like them start warming up to bitcoin we can start expecting so much more price because of the adoption these type of sites would bring to bitcoin. there are already millions of users on these sites that many of them are paying to be there and these can go through bitcoin.

i just hope block size can handle this number when comes the time.

I support every bitcoin integration with every business even tho I can't use it at all, but this is what's needed more, big companies implementing bitcoin as a payment option, just as today I've noticed that Steam has bitcoin as a payment option.

If bitcoin really becomes a global currency.Will it remain cost-effective?

That guy is right.Bitcoin is a better alternative to gift cards.

Given how volatile the foreign exchanges are, I expect more and more online companies will start offering bitcoin simply because it is holding it's value.

Hmm. You're quite right and there should be process to stop the barrier of convert fiat into crypto currency and cryptocurrency to fiat cos a lot of people don't trust exchangers this days.

I understand speaking about Bitcoins would gain a lot of traction for the executive, but it's better if Netflix atleast considers implementing Bitcoins as a form of payment since this would enable most of us to pay using it. But I'm sure there will be a lot of clauses in their terms and Content restrictions country wise which could be the reason that they wouldn't want anyone to pay using Bitcoins yet, cause the IP could be masked and identity as well and Bitcoin could aid that, and this wouldn't be something that they'd be happy about.

If a huge company like Netflix accepted Bitcoin as a form of payment, not only would Bitcoin become known worldwide and tens of millions of new people would learn about it, but it would also mean that other big companies would take notice of Bitcoin, and it could lead to a number of possibilities for the cryptocurrency. This is great news for Bitcoin, and this might be the key to getting it known in the mainstream market.

This is  i guess just a speculation but still a thing  for us to consider. I  my self is going to love this thing because i am really a fun of watching latest movies as one of way of releasing a stressful day.

yeah, this would e good and many of bitcoin users would love it if it happens. and will definitely start spending bitcoin.

i just hope more of these type of popular services start accepting bitcoin in their business so we get more options.

Yes but for now assuming is really not the thing haha we might just end up into false speculations but yeah we will just continue supporting this kind of plans. All we have to do right now is to wait aff.

 I think this is already confirmed report haha If not, still its a good move for netflix. Another option to accept bitcoin is also a good publicity for bitcoin and some subscriber will be curious.

Might of taken a bit of time but I am happy to announce https://www.ipayyou.io/  (https://www.ipayyou.io/) actually sells "Netflix Gift Cards" for Bitcoin.
They have added it to the impressive line up for us all to enjoy. Thanks to a short conversation we had. Figured It wont hurt to let you know here in full transparency.

Jeff, thank you for your proposal.
Let me review it and I will be sure to get back to you as soon as possible.

In the meantime – based on our conversation, we have added Netflix … so you can effectively buy Netflix subscriptions with bitcoin effective immediately!  
Let me know if your audience would be particularly interested in this offer.
Check it out on https://iPayYou.io.
Let me know what you think,

Gene Kavner, CEO
https://iPayYou.io
https://i.imgur.com/cfNJkAZ.png

As you see they have included Netflix to an impressive line up of Starbucks, Best Buy, and Itunes Gift Cards.
I do plan to continuue and help them by adding a few more real world uses for bitcoin with giftcards that our audience has shown expressed interest in seeing for Bitcoin.
But that's not all, send bitcoin over Twitter, or E-mail with https://iPayYou.io
Nice rounded system, as I've tested it out. Now that they have added Netflix, don't you think?

You are more then welcome to say Thank You to Mr Gene Kavner, CEO of https://iPayYou.io for adding Netflix if any of this helps you out.
Also add https://twitter.com/Ultra1 (https://twitter.com/Ultra1) and tweet thanks, better yet say thanks https://twitter.com/iPayYouWallet (https://twitter.com/iPayYouWallet) <-Here
Last but not least be sure to catch the Latest Bitcoin News and Interviews on http://bitcointalkradio.com/ (http://bitcointalkradio.com/) when your not enjoying the show!

Since the news has long been discussed but has not yet become a reality, need third party to added Netflix and accepted bitcoin such a good move imho. I'm wondering why it takes so long for them to have bitcoin as legal currency that people can pay for netflix subscriptions and use globally especially in developing countries.

Ya finally someone realized huh, I hate charge backs. Let's try bitcoin. It's an obvious choice to us but obviously their customers won't understand what bitcoins are for a long time. I'm already sick of trying to explain it to people and I'm relatively new to the scene if you look at the big picture.

I agree with you, even if they started accepting BTC for payment for their services, they KYC will expose customers identity and also will be able to track customers IP address

I'm thirsty for this mate. Is there anyone on here that know the latest scoop concern the Netflix Executive wanting Bitcoin as global currency?

That will be a really good news for bitcoin users that are netflix subscribers if it happens. I love netflix and im a bitcoin user. Now, if they accept bitcoin as payment. It will be more convenient for me because i dont wanna go for any authorized netflix agent to pay for bills. But im sure they will use third party for this. Since other companies using third party also to convert btc to cash. I think that will be their system. But still its a good new to us.

It's definitely cost-effective however I don't know if it really is that good when it comes to going out and making a case from it being a global currency. As an efficient means of international fiat trade sure, but it's far from being a viable currency for use with many other things in normal life.

He's right in a way, but I don't know if he uses it enough to understand that.

I can't see this option in my country. They give you a free month as trial so anyone test it and they ask about your credit card or paypal account. Additionally there is not as option the usage of prepaid cards. After that if you don't stop use their service they start to charge you using this card.

This is a welcome news even though it's old, I am sure this will take time, and they just can't start it over night. But when ever they choose to do, they shall make a killing for it. Netflix is the most popular content and that starts accepting Bitcoin, the value of Bitcoin will surge along with its popularity. Looking forward to this happening in 2017

Yes, in deed a good news and someone was saying this bitcoin not a currency.I am glad to see this kind of thread. :)