Bitcoin Forum

Even though Amazon has stated they have no plans to accept bitcoin, we all know that plans can change. I think that Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne is correct when he says that Amazon will ultimately have no choice but to accept bitcoin. The question is: when will they decide to do it? Vote in the above poll!

Amazon will accept Bitcoin when Prime members want it.

If you look at all the money Amazon invests in growth it's always targeted to the Prime members who are mostly professionals. These people work 60 hours a week and make enough money that they don't have to shop around for good prices, and would rather have the convenience of going to a single site and getting their order in a couple of days. These people don't have the time or desire to figure out how to use Bitcoin so they won't until it's so easy they don't have to figure it out.

When it's easy to use Bitcoin Amazon will be on-board.

When hell freezes over, considering they lied their fucking asses off ("We’re not hearing from customers that it’s right for them") in the face of the petition*. A majority of AMZN shares will need to be bought by one of the big bitcoin investors first.

* http://www.change.org/petitions/amazon-com-amazon-com-accept-bitcoin

2000 people doesn't make for much. And has this petition been shown to Amazon?

Apparently it will depend on how many of their customers demand it.
If they start accepting btc before the coming holiday season then it will likely benefit them a lot.

Just reached 3,000 signatures!

It doesn't matter what the number, above "2". What Amazon said was that they weren't hearing from customers.

THEY HEARD FROM 2 CUSTOMERS. Customer, another customer, done!

Which means what they said was a blatant lie, by MORE THAN A FUCKING ORDER OF MAGNITUDE (an 'order of magnitude' is to the power of 10, BTW) 2 to the 11th power=2,048.

they may fear for the gift cards of their own so may not bother abt crypto

May be by 2020 or so. With the current board of directors, it is never going to happen. Amazon has no interest right now in allowing Bitcoin as a mode of payment. If the owners change, then it might be possible.

Something tells me if Ebay finally does it(not holding my breath as long as PayPal is in the picture), then Amazon will finally succumb and have to offer Bitcoin as a payment method.

Either that or if Google, Apple, or Facebook finally adopt it in some fashion.

I suspect another 12 to 18 months if all goes optimally

You can already buy anything you want from Amazon with Bitcoin via gift cards through Gyft, and save 3% to boot. If Amazon starts accepting Bitcoin, I doubt you'll still be able to save the 3%. So what's the rush? :-)

This

If Amazon accepts Bitcoin, then the discount will be more than 3%. I have seen Amazon giving as much as 10% discount to VISA / Master users and Paypal users in certain occasions. The same can happen with Bitcoin.

Amazon is not accepting paypal, SO it is very hard to think they accept bitcoin.

2017 or later. First bitcoin price should be steady.

When it is "mainstream", whatever that implies. This might be never, but it's too early to say.

I haven't used Gyft yet because I can only get them in increments of $5, which means that I have to buy (just to use a hypothetical amount) a $25 gift card for a $20.01 purchase, and that just annoys me.

On the other hand, now that I think about it .....

I use amazon enough that the residual $4.99 is unlikely to sit there for long. Therefore:

I hereby resolve to use Gyft WHENEVER I shop on Amazon.

Once Amazon sees how much bitcoin is flowing to them through Gyft, they may decide to cut out the middleman.

Went for first half of 2015. Anything earlier than that is far too optimistic imo, however later than that would be quite sad, hopefully they'll embrace it sooner.

I love bitcoin and all, but why would you want to use it to buy stuff on Amazon?

Because Amazon is such a huge market, and of course we want bitcoins to be accepted by as many traders and businesses around the world as possible? It increases it's value, makes it mainstream and allows other people to benefit from the technological advantages over other currencies!

That doesn't really answer my question. A credit card is faster, safer, and gives me a cash back bonus.

I just buy gyft cards and get 3% back.  That's better then my cash back credit card.  Merchants should offer a bitcoin discount since there saving on CC fees.

Now that would be a reason to use bitcoin on Amazon. I never use bitcoin just for the sake of using bitcoin; it needs to earn its value. Right now it's in anonymity.

When they implement (if) the system I'll sure they'll have thought it through, making the sales smooth. I don't understand how using a credit card is safer, though?

Probably after about an year in my opinion. Things doesn't go so fast. That would be a good thing to step for bitcoin forward.

Chargeback, fraud protection, no need to worry about wallet security. Bitcoin has some drawbacks to the consumer and I want a discount in compensation for using it. It's a boon to merchants in some ways, they need to share the rewards.

Why do you have to worry more about your wallet than your credit card?

i hope it will happen soon.

I've started using bitcoin through gyft whenever I buy on amazon. I'll buy a gyft card using bitcoin and at exactly the same time, I buy the same amount of bitcoin from coinbase. I miss out on the 1% cash back from Discover, and may lose a percent or so due to the spread on coinbase (this part is variable), but usually come out ahead with the 3% in rewards points that gyft gives me.

Gyft cards come in increments of $5 so if I have, let's say, a $102 purchase on amazon, I'll buy a $100 card at gift and charge the remaining $2 to my credit card.

You have to weigh the 1 percent or so I get in savings against the fact that it takes a few extra steps and is a little less convenient. Right now, my main motivation is because I want to show support for bitcoin. But eventually I think it will become streamlined so that even the average person will be motivated to use bitcoin because of the extra savings.

It would be cool if they rolled it out to Amazon Prime members only first, just to see how much it could increase their bottom line.   If they did that, I am sure they would end up adding BTC support.

i don't think it's happening time soon. doesn't seem like they think it will benefit them much at this point.

IMO, you can never make too much money. I think they are under the impression that the cost to implement, support, and train people on crypto, wouldnt make them enough money to make it worthwhile

I voted on October of this year. I think bitcoin will continue to grow. Once we get close to the holiday spending season, Amazon will feel the squeeze to offer the bitcoin community an opportunity to spend their currency at Amazon. I see it as a purely financial decision they will make at some point.

They are not interested. Bitcoin-buyer's niche is still too small for them.

It would be huge if they did.

At the moment it might be, but hopefully they can see the potential. I'd love to see what effect having a massive merchant like Amazon onboard would do for Bitcoin.

Any chance one of these mega companies like Amazon, Apple, Google, Facebook, will start their own coin rather than deal with something they don't control?

I think that if everything goes okay with overstock.com excepting bitcoin and it boosts the image of bitcoin then we could see stores like amazon accepting it in te first half of 2015 at the earliest.

I have picked second half of 2015 (1.5 years from now) :)

I'm guessing amazon can track how much btc traffic there currently getting through gift cards bought from gyft with btc.  When it gets large enough for them to notice they'll take it directly.

It doesn't matter how many signatures you gather on that petition. I'm think 2016 or after.

I'm thinking when the tax laws are more clear people will embrace it more openly

I agree with this.

It would be awesome when Amazon starts to accept Bitcoin, but I don't think it will happen anytime soon.
There are rumors that Amazon is actually trying to create their own digital currency to use for Amazon shoppers.
We'll see how Amazon will change its perspective about Bitcoin as more shoppers and merchants demands it as it gets more widespread.

I don't suspect this will happen until sometime late 2015 at the earliest.  There are many factors involved and not enough inertia to move organizations.

1.  Transactions for product from merchants using bitcoin is currently weak especially in the U.S. their primary territory.
2.  As noted earlier the tax questions remain.
3.  The marketplace needs to decide if bitcoin is going to be a currency or an asset security.  Those investing for the hopes of an increase in the price of a bitcoin are not going to spend it on a latte at their favorite merchant or a music album download from amazon.  "I spent the equivalent of $5US in bitcoin on a latte...if I saved it it would have been worth 10x that" :(.   This is a big challenge for marketplace as a whole.  If using it as a currency does not increase many would say that this is nothing but a ponzi scheme.  Could it be both?  Yes but the currency side needs to have more activity and not just in micro locations.
4.  The state of Ohio recently banned it for use for the sale of alcohol since it is not a "currency".  This is not helping.
5.  Recently Gyft announced you could buy Walmart Gift cards with bitcoin and then just as quickly the offering was withdrawn.  This is a red flag for many of the larger retailers.  

My own prediciton would be something like 2016 or 2017.

I give it 6 months.ebay will go first

Do you think Gyft reports this information to Amazon? I am not so certain about it. Seems like it would be proprietary information to Gyft and they won't gain anything by giving this to Amazon.

prime years are good for the market; 1987, 2003, 2011, 2017, etc..

Use Gyft to buy Amazon gift cards and get 3% back.   Works great.

This! I'm thinking we lose the 3% when Amazon starts accepting Bitcoin, so live it up!

I'm one of the Illuminati.
                                  http://velosport.zp.ua/public/style_emoticons/default/trollface-mini[1].png

They already accept bitcoins via giftcard through Gyft and other places.

I think they would prefer to keep it that way as it takes any risk of dealing with Bitcoins directly out of their hands.

If bitcoin is big and there is a lot of money to be made, they will accept it. And if Amazon accepts bitcoin, then everyone will follow.  It is the chicken/egg problem.  Amazon won't accept because it isn't big enough, but it won't be big enough until amazon accepts it.  To me, more than anything else, Amazon is the one site that I look at for bitcoins long term success.  I think Amazon is the tell tale sign. 

I think bitcoin pricing has to stabilise first for big merchants to accept this. If we look at FX, we can see a 1-2% volatility swing in a day...but not 10-20% like what's possible with btc and other crypto coins. Just my take on this.

I highly doubt that. 1) It will most likely not happen before 2015 or later; 2) Ebay has Paypal.

Credit cards are fundamentally unsafe, because the information you give to a merchant to pay them a specific amount is the same information a thief needs to steal a fortune. You may feel insulated from this, but ultimately it is the customer who pays for the lack of safety.

Amazon already have their own AmazonCoin. Since they control it, it's effectively a gift token. It's not set the world on fire, nor is it likely to.

I guess it will take a few years at least, so I have picked "2017 or later" :)

It should. Amazon has shown no real interest towards Bitcoin, yet.

By early 2015 is my estimate

A bit optimistic are we? (even after Amazon stated that they have no plans to add Bitcoin yet)

OMG its that posible? call tell me when?

It is only a matter of time. It is coming.