Bitcoin Forum

So when I heard about gyft, I thought 'yay' and bought a little item for my laptop, only when I checked out I discovered that on their UK site I couldn't use BTC. Same with newegg.

Why is this the case?

Regulation. No company is going to sell stuff that might turn out to be illegal. The U.S. has provided some direction for retailers. That would be my guess.

Probably have something to do with UK law.

Newegg is headquartered in California, and California just declared bitcoin a legal currency.

There are plenty of UK stores and businesses that accept or deal with bitcoin so I can't understand why UK law would prohibit them. Overstock is looking to implement worldwide bitcoin adoption but for now it's just America I think.

Because these sites are US based and they will implement something new first in the "home" market. Ironically for a company like Overstock it is for the international sales where Bitcoin has the most potential.

Yep, it's all to do with the law situation regarding Bitcoin and other countries so they've probably cleared the law side of things on the U.S but not in the UK.

If you're looking for computer components http://www.scan.co.uk accepts Bitcoins I plan on using them to buy stuff when I get enough money :D

Does CoinBase and or BitPay handle the British Pound????

I think the reason is both legal and the ability to convert the currency to the company's country fiat. Make no mistake these companies accepting BTC are not holding BTC.

I did the same thing, would be great if something like this went Europe wide.

1. gyft is an american company, so accept their cards to only work on american sites
2. new egg US branch is expanding bitcoin becaus that is where the demand is,

you will find that UK is about a year or 2 behind america when it comes to bitcoin adoption, not many UK bitcoin users are pushing UK merchants to adopt bitcoin. they just sit on their sofa watching coronation street waiting for others to do the work for them

if your looking for sites in the UK that accept bitcoin(nationally)
aria.co.uk
scan.co.uk
takeaway.com

thats 3 pulled straight from my head.
i think even overstocks UK division has bitcoin payments at the shopping cart end

the list is getting bigger for national coverage sites, and the list of local places is large too.. but the qustion shouldnt be, why hasnt merchants in UK adopted bitcoin.. but instead ask why havnt you asked THEM?

This.  Although there are a bunch of exchanges that let you use a wide variety of currencies, there aren't many (if any) mature payment processors that convert to something other than USD.  There needs to be a pound/euro/etc payment processor that plugs in just like visa/mastercard/paypal that is mature enough for a big company to trust.

Thank you Franky1. I didn't know about those sites, well I knew scan, but didn't know they took btc, which is great!

Takeaway is great too, hopefully someone will take my 10,000 btc and give me a pizza (or two).

Bitpay certainly does

Maybe the way each country manage it's economy and so the rules or laws they have make Bitcoins a little hard to implement, i believe it is just a

matter of time when Bitcoin is accepted increasingly all over the world.

An odd point of view considering the UK gave explicit guidance back in March (Bitcoin to be treated as foreign currency, taxes on sales due at sterling at time of transaction), while the US hasn't given such clear guidance, California only repealed law that previously made them technically illegal there, and federal agency sale implicitly recognising they are an asset with value.

I'd say its more because large US based companies do stuff in their home market first, then roll out globally later.  

It would not be difficult for a european merchant to convert their dollars to euros if they were to utilize coinbase for bitcoin payment processing. Even if they were not able to do so, there are many international companies that have a legitimate need for dollars.

Well it's precisely because the U.S hasn't given clear guidance on how to interact with foreign countries regarding Bitcoin and so on because the U.S has the IRS which is notoriously difficult when it comes to moving money in and out of the country internationally which is why I take that view. If they were based in the UK things would be much simpler, I'm based in the UK of course as well and a UK citizen so I don't have to worry about the IRS until I exchange my Bitcoin for dollars.

For those who don't know here's the official guidance on Bitcoin regarding HMRC.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/briefs/vat/brief0914.htm



Bitcoin is also exempt from VAT contrary to what was ruled before and all over the news, mainly because there is no way they could enforce it rofl :D

yes, I've worked in European E-Commerce and generally the laws in Europe are far more constraining than the US.  Some states in the US have virtually no restrictions on BTC(Nevada).

-bm

it's really hard to find companies that ship a lot of things to Asia where I live. btc would be perfect for me, but they still don't ship here even when they accept btc :(

There are Canadian sites accepting BTC too.

Tigerdirect.ca just started, for example. And I've seen a few websites and companies based in Canada that accept BTC, often for large orders in excess of $2,500.

Then again, however, there's a lot of things that factor into the use of bitcoin as a monetary unit. The USA has a lot of people who create websites too, and a lot of the rest of the world isn't obsessed with having a website of their own. America has a lot of tech-based people, and 10x the amount of Canada.

Regulations... I have no idea. Canada has some vauge regulations, but nothing has really been confirmed, nor have I been able to find the original bill of some things that are claimed to exist.

But America has lots of people, and lots of tech-based people, and that's why it's more common to see American sites accepting Bitcoin.

It is probably a combination of things. Regulatory environment and the fact that many of these companies are US based means it is easier to roll it out there first.   

your right its a combination of things

from 2009-2014 the percentage of americans holding bitcoin is far superior to other countries (they got on the boat first basically). now other countries are getting on board. EG china getting onboard in 2013 and although some of us brits were already onboard from 2010-2011 onwards. the pace was really slow. mainly due to the fact that us lucky brits had a thing called 'faster payments' meaning we were never waiting around 3-5 business days for pounds to clear in bank accounts.

so we had less need for bitcoins.. but now that we are seeing our own banking system get screwed up, and with HMRC being able to just take income tax out of our accounts if we have over £5k in the account, and possible negative interest rates.. we are seeing more and more reason to get onboard the bitcoin boat..

My guess is cuz UK is junior partner, it will come along, politely, in a couple of years after USA -- as usual...

The budget implementation bill prescribes regulations for "virtual currencies", but those have not been written yet, as far as I know.