Bitcoin Forum

Rakuten, the biggest e-commerce store in Japan is most likely to introduce Bitcoin payments. The company is going through some major corporate restructuring in which their cryptocurrency business is becoming part of their Payments and Settlements business.

Article link: https://blockmanity.com/news/bitcoin/amazon-of-japan-rakuten-likely-to-introduce-bitcoin-payments/

if it happens, that will be a real great news for crypto users!

They said the same thing last year and we're still waiting. I know people will say it takes time etc which I agree with, but we need facts and not just some "I will..." to make the shareholders happy.
I am sure too we won't be able to pay using BTC directly, they will create something like a payment processor in which we will able to deposit our bitcoins, and then install the payment processor on theirs websites. In the end, we still need to use a 3rd party...

Rakuten has been eyeing Bitcoin payments since last year, so I am hopeful

The company has released a corporate structure,
https://global.rakuten.com/corp/news/press/2019/0118_05.html?year=2019&month=1&category=corp%20ir

The above link explains how the cryptocurrency exchange will now be part of the payment's business.

If so, this will be a boost for bitcoin, not necessarily in price but perhaps in usability and fundamentals. Rakuten would probably just sell the bitcoins anyway after they have received it from users, kinda like what Bitpay does but we'll never know. They can have a crypto exchange of their own but they can still dump the bitcoins they received on their store immediately, so there's that. All in all though it's good that a huge player in the e-commerce business is ready and willing to accept bitcoin for a form of payment, unlike most of their competitors nowadays.

Can you please quote the exact lines from the press release which talks about bitcoin or crypto payments becoming part of their retail or e-com business?? Because I am not able to find anything of that sort! What I found is a mention of "everybody's bitcoin Inc." which is an unlicensed crypto exchange in Japan, possibly non operative currently. I see no mention of accepting crypto payments in their retail/E-commerce business.

Creating or re-opening a crypto exchange is not going to help. It will just become another hub for speculators. It will be beneficial if they start accepting crypto payments for the goods they sell through their retail/e-com chain, where common public like us will be able to use crypto or bitcoin payments. Otherwise, it's nothing exciting!

They haven't mentioned it per say, but if you look at the image it shows and Everybody's Bitcoin, becomes part of Rakuten Payments..and the PR clearly mentions Rakuten payments will be responsible for the payments related to Rakuten. 2 and 2 can be pieced together that Rakuten is planning something huge with Bitcoins.

If you look at the top article, Rakuten has publicily supported cryptocurrencies in the e-commerce and P2P space. Rakuten owns line, with the threat of Facebook coming up with own cryptos, Rakuten would try to incorporate P2P payments in line itself.

It could be great if that will happen
Together with Bakkt launch we can  have bitcoin in use finally
From today Coindesk article i know that digital YEN is in test phase
I am sure that China will also launch digital YUAN faster and sooner
I am curious does launch of gov digital money will have any impact on crypto currencies market

Wow that's goood. Can you share the article?

I don't think China is launching Digital Yuan anytime soon and even if they do it probably won't be for existing cryptocurrencies

This would be a massive cryptocurrency leap for enthusiastic Asian cryptocurrency lovers rakuten is massive in Japan, Asia and the world at large so it's quite good to see this coming through

If Rakuten really adopt any crypto, Bitcoin or not, it will be huge. They made some great sponsorship deals with great tennis players in 2018 with intention to enter into EU/US markets.
But every few month I read about rumours of bitcoin adoption from giants like Amazon and Rakuten and at this point no one adopt it for real. So for now this is just in rumours column.

It depends. Not everyone needs a decentralized/censorship resistant form of money, so if governments issue a fiat like token people can transfer 24/7, they will use it just because it's convenient, stable, and a way better form of money than any crypto is today.

Bitcoin has the advantage of being digital Gold already, so there isn't much damage it can inflict there, especially with how the far majority of the people here don't use Bitcoin as a currency for day to day transactions anyway. We're still using fiat, and we will continue to do so in the forthcoming years, so unless a major fiat currency implodes and people lose faith in government issued money, not much will change.

even the rumours, which in Rakuten's case looking like very real possibility, give a boost to cryptocurrencies in this bear market
and if it goes through, this will put bitcoin in the line of payment systems in Japan
this is huge on so many levels, adoption is one thing, but having one of a big retailers running the payment system accepting bitcoins
is going to ge a test for the whole potential of Lightning Network and find the bottlenecks in how fiat-crypto day to day exchange is working on a big scale
expect the price to rise significantly if this happens

Japan is always the leader in technology. This is a good step forwards for mainstream adoption. I'm sure after this they will be usable to buy asahi beers in the supermarkets

Viber is their app, right? I hate this one! The dialogues keep disappearing every time there's a desynchronization, and the whole thing is just buggy and inconvenient. However, it's indeed great that bitcoin will be accepted for payment by a large E-commerce company! Japan is a nice country for cryptocurrencies. Not only its policies are friendly for crypto business, what's more important is that bitcoin is recognized as legal tender there rather than as assets, securities, commodities and other stuff like other countries like to say about cryptos.

If it is true, It is great news for all of us. We need some developments more like this one. Remember, Bitcoin is a payment tool. And it should be use this way.

A positive innovation even if there is nothing more definite. Already the behaviour towards cryptocurrency recently has changed a lot and I think slowly-slowly starting to enter our lives. If the price was stable we could see more changes, but even in the current position I believe we can achieve what we want.

Any news of adoption by a major organisation is a good thing but I see so many stories like this that never get implemented.

Let’s hope they actually start accepting BTC in the near future.

If this news became true the payment would be using the BTC directly
Any third party without payment would be good
I think the Japanese proved that they were among the most willing to pay through the BTC .

Japanese companies are one of the most innovative in the world. After regulators adopt laws related to the control of the cryptocurrency market, after that we can see a new cryptocurrency boom in Japan.

I agree, we had heard so many times big corporation will adopt bitcoin but it never happened, and if its happened then they still used the third party, it will be good if they really implemented bitcoin without any third party, and we are waiting for bitcoin to become their payment option, it will show that bitcoin still got influence

I just love the way in which Japan is sticking it to the rest of the world.  ;D  I guess it is much easier for Rakuten to do this, because Japanese regulators has already decided that Bitcoin would be acknowledged as a currency too. The regulatory environment in the US is a bit different, because they define Bitcoin as a commodity, so Amazon might struggle to do the same.

It just shows us how important regulations and laws are, for the merchant adoption in a country.  :P

If Rakuten adds Bitcoin as a form of payment on their platforms, it's going to have a huge effect. If I am not wrong, Rakuten is the 13th or 14th largest company in the world by sales, with a revenue of 6 to 7 billions per year. Besides that, Japanese people are very technology friendly, I believe Bitcoin will thrive on Rakuten and we will see the effects in the increase of adoption and price.

I have heard their CEO loves Bitcoin (there is no source, just saw some people discussing this on Reddit)

there are a ton of companies in Japan that have been integrating bitcoin in their systems for over a year now. to put simply ever since Japanese government accepted bitcoin as a legal way of payment and also removed all taxes from bitcoin when people use it as a currency, it created a big inventive for ever merchant and big company to start looking into accepting bitcoin. in fact that was one of the biggest reasons for the price rise of 2017.

don't agree with the main reason for the 2017 price rise because of Japanese companies integrating bitcoins into their payment systems
but I do agree that Japan is at the moment an example to the rest of the world of how to
promote bitcoin and make it a legal and common payment system along fiat
Rakuten is  a huge step in the same direction

Sounds fun but it won't make much difference to anyone or anything. Bic Camera which is a big electronics retailer in Japan has accepted BTC payment for ages. You don't hear much about that. As ever merchant adoption is great for existing users. It does zero to attract new ones for assimilation.

As I noticed that despite the fact that the rate falls bitcoin is beginning to use as an example as a currency and it is very happy. Very much want to as soon as possible bitcoin recognized not only in Japan but also around the world.

 That is one of another way of making progress in business;  when companies or individuals has a lot of options to pay for your services, it will bring more customers to your door step, we are in digital world, for you to operate successful business world wide, I think addition of bitcoin is a good idea,
 If Mr Rakuten finally introduced bitcoin as part of payment, it going to be good news to bitcoin family.

This is one of those adoption we've been hoping for to come from big companies. Even though Rakuten have been tipping this since last year, I hope it comes to light this time around. That would be a big push and also coming from a country like Japan. It might bring other big names to join in too.

In Japan, Bitcoin or other crypto currency are defined as "Virtual currency" as you say, but that definition will be changed as "Crypto asset" in some years later.
https://cointelegraph.com/news/japan-crypto-classified-as-crypto-assets-to-prevent-confusion-with-legal-tender

I think Japanese government mistook to adopt the name of "Virtual currency" because they just imitated G20's definition.
Although the definition will be changed, according to Financial Service Authority's meeting, bitcoin has not been denied to be used as payment method hereafter.

I bought my network router from Rakuten.com with bitcoin in 2015.  I'm surprised they haven't enabled bitcoin payments for their customers in Japan yet.

https://www.coinspeaker.com/rakuten-unveils-multi-sig-discount-bitcoin-payments-8296/

https://bravenewcoin.com/insights/rakuten-launches-bitcoin-payments-and-multi-sig-for-us-market

This is amazing! Its really nice to see news like this because it inspired everyone to invest , bitcoin is still recovering but you can see that it improves the way companies/countries adapt and accept it. Still hoping that some companies from my country also accept bitcoin , I know it will take a lot of time but I am willing to wait.

I think it is better to wait with admiration until it becomes a fact. There are already so many news about the introduction of Bitcoin payments, which later nothing resulted or we are waiting so far unsuccessfully.

How can Rakuten be the Amazon of  Japan if Japan already have made Amazon locally available? This news sites are really killing it, it is hard for companies like Rakuten to shine under their name if they are compared to giants like Amazon. But if Rakuten actually did accept Bitcoin first then they might be on the edge of something, being a pioneer in the e-commerce industry that accepts Bitcoin will really help them land on the right foot especially because their country is known to be crypto friendly, they already have a head start in their own country.

Amazon is not 'Amazon' everywhere. It launched in Australia a year or so ago and so far it's been something of a damp squib. I believe in Japan they're within a few per cent market share of each other.

Many countries have an internet filled with brands that none of us would recognise in the slightest. Just because it dominates us does not mean that's the same everywhere.

That is great news! I love to hear news when Bitcoin is rising in adoption. I hope other companies will follow them and add Bitcoin as a method of payment as well. If many of those smaller or national companies accept Bitcoin, maybe the big ones (like Amazon or AliExpress) will follow them. That would be a great thing for Bitcoin and the whple cryptocurrency world.

The news actually surfaced last August (2018) when some online news sites published Rakuten's plan to buy a BTC exchange, but no follow up about further development since then.