Bitcoin Forum

Bitcoin is catching on at U.S. online merchants including Overstock.com and Expedia, as customers use a digital currency that just a few years ago was virtually unknown but is now showing some staying power.

Though sales paid for in bitcoin so far at vendors interviewed for this article have been a fraction of one percent, they expect that as acceptance grows, the online currency will one day be as ubiquitous as the internet.

"Bitcoin isn't going anywhere; it's here to stay," said Michael Gulmann, vice president of global products at Expedia Inc. in Seattle, the largest online travel agent. "We want to be there from the beginning." Expedia started accepting bitcoin payments for hotel bookings on July 11.

Until recently a niche alternative currency touted by a fervent group of followers, bitcoin has evolved into a software-based payment online system. Bitcoins are stored in a wallet with a unique identification number and companies like Coinbase and Blockchain can hold the currency for the user.

When buying an item from a merchant's website, a customer simply clicks on the bitcoin option and a pop-in window appears where he can type in his wallet ID number.

Still, broad-based adoption of bitcoin is at least five years away because most consumers still prefer to use credit cards, analysts said.

"Bitcoin is a new way of making payments, but it's not solving a problem that's broken," said George Peabody, payments consultant at Glenbrook Partners in Menlo Park, California. "Retail payments aren't broken."

There are also worries about bitcoin's volatility: its price in U.S. dollars changes every day. On Wednesday, bitcoin was up 0.4 percent at $514.09.

That risk is borne by the consumer and the bitcoin payment processor, such as Coinbase or Bitpay, not the retailer. The vendor doesn't hold the bitcoin and is paid in U.S. dollars. As soon as a customer pays in bitcoin, the digital currency goes to the payment processor and the processor immediately pays the merchant, for a fee of less than 1 percent.



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http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/business/08/30/14/bitcoin-shows-staying-power

Well, I never had any doubt about that. Value may go up and down, but the blockchain is a truly remarkable invention. It just needs a few computers connected between each other, and it will last forever.

I would not be surprised if Bitcoin has crossed the tipping point - we just don't know it

Just this morning bitcoin dropped $25 I think, what is the biggest drop you experienced?

$25 is really nothing, everyone who experienced a real crash could agree with this.

What is interesting to me, is that the news website is in my country; although it's common for news to be syndicated or "borrowed".

Bitcoin again started dropping again. Went 475$/coin . What a sudden fall..

Still lot of hopes with BTC

No need to worry about the popularity of btc. It'll catch on eventually. The thing I'm worried about is the price of BTC. It's dropping recently.

Btw,BTC/USD price on https://www.igot.com/ (https://www.igot.com/) is currently 492 USD.Today high on igot was $508.62.  :)
I think igot has the highest price of all exchanges at this moment,correct me if i'm wrong.

Try over $700 from the peak of $1,200. After the Mt. Gox scandal, the price dropped by half, then it sank a bit further, but now it's hanging around $500 - $600 recently. $25 is a fair amount, but it's nothing compared to what Bitcoin has endured in the past.

Bitcoin is a tough player. It will maintain its value even in hard times!

Don't worry about prices, it will rise again.

Bitcoin Don't Give A Shit. you can use it the same way when it is at 10 USD or 100000 USD  ;)

The price in the short term doesn't really matter so much unless you're new to the the big picture and haven't had your stomach strengthened from multiple volatility reversals. Furthermore, this recent dip is a great buying opportunity and if you're bullish medium to long term like I am, scoop em up. Currently, it's w/i reach for the average person to be able to actually buy a full BTC when in the future the average person will be jealous of those that actually have a full BTC or more. Reminds me of the part in "Back to the Future: Part I" when Marty goes back in time and meets his mother and her siblings and he brags about having multiple tv sets and the young uncle exclaims, "you must be rich".

Bitcoin will always suffer a fall but I believe it will always pull itself back up again one way or another. We are only experiencing small drops in the price which is nothing, it's if we were to start to see huge drops in the price it may be a time to start to worry.

Bitcoin will always rise from the ashes. Bitcoin rules 8) 8)

That's the real reason Bitcoin is spreading. There is absolutely NO downside for any business to take Bitcoin. They don't have to use Bitcoin or even hold on to it for any period of time. To the business owners it may as well be a cash transaction. We don't need any more businesses accepting Bitcoin for now. They will all jump in line when the user base increases. What we need more of and I mean a lot more of is daily users.

Bitcoin must be the one and only currency that existed and evolved into such a gigantic success even not being centrally controlled,its obvious this thing is gonna make some history as it already has made but I think more is to come as we go

correct but when the user bases increases it will be closer to 100000 than 10 USD lol :D

With cash transactions the business will have a risk the cash is counterfeit or that the cash gets stolen prior to getting deposited at the bank. This risk does not exist when accepting bitcoin.

The only risk to the merchant is that coinbase would not send payment to the merchant's account, but this could be resolved by a letter of credit from the bank that would guarantee payment.  

Thank you, that's my point. Getting a business to accept Bitcoin should be easy peasy lemon squeezy. It really is a no brainer. Using Bitcoin for the average Joe - not such a no brainer. I love the fact that all these miners have plenty of places to spend all the money that their cute little black boxes are putting out but we need the soccer mom that shops all day using it too.

Bitcoin does not need to be the only currency that is used to be successful (or continue to be used). It only needs to be used enough so that it's value holds up and does not crash.

Hope this message will be spread to all the media cover and let masses know the advantages BTC bring to us.