[2017-12-13] EBay ‘Seriously Considering’ Adding Bitcoin Payments

[cybersofts]

EBay ‘Seriously Considering’ Adding Bitcoin Payments




EBay, one of the world’s largest e-commerce platforms, is considering making the leap into cryptocurrency payments, according to a high-ranking company executive.


EBay ‘Seriously Considering’ Adding Bitcoin Payments

Scott Cutler, senior vice president of eBay Americas, told Yahoo Finance that the e-commerce giant is holding serious discussions about becoming the highest-profile company to accept cryptocurrency payments.

    “This is a trend that everybody is talking about, but sadly, at eBay, we don’t currently accept bitcoin as a form of payment, Cutler said. “We’re seriously considering it as these cryptocurrencies become more of a mainstream” payment instrument, but “we’re not quite there yet.”

Cutler added that the website serves as a popular secondary market for cryptocurrency mining hardware, and third-party sellers have listed thousands of other cryptocurrency-related collectibles.


Cryptocurrency Enters Main Street

Although it does not appear that eBay currently has any concrete plans to adopt cryptocurrency payments, the fact that the company is holding high-level discussions on the matter is the latest testament to how quickly bitcoin has permeated the mainstream.

Last week, bitcoin brokerage app Coinbase briefly became the top app in the Apple Store, signaling that retail investors were onboarding into the bitcoin ecosystem at a breakneck pace — a pace so rapid that Coinbase has suffered persistent outages due to record traffic.

This week, the first bitcoin futures contracts launched on U.S. exchange CBOE, and CME — the world’s largest derivatives exchange — will begin trading bitcoin futures next week. Though primarily targeted at Wall Street, futures are expected to lead to the creation of the first Bitcoin ETF, a retail investor-friendly investment vehicle that can be easily held in brokerage and retirement accounts.

The next watershed moment will be when cryptocurrency becomes so ubiquitous that businesses commonly accept it as payment for goods or services.

Prominent retailers such as Overstock and Newegg have accepted bitcoin for years, but none of retail’s white whales — a group that includes eBay, Amazon, and Alibaba — has formally adopted cryptocurrency payments. Earlier this year, CCN debunked a rumor that Amazon was planning to accept bitcoin. Recently, Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma stated that bitcoin was “not for me,” indicating that the Chinese conglomerate is not likely to adopt a currency that operates without government backing.

Some retailers, including video game distribution platform Steam, have actually stopped accepting bitcoin payments in recent months, citing increasing transaction fees that have accompanied bitcoin’s meteoric rise. However, bitcoin remains an option for big-ticket items, and altcoins such as ethereum, bitcoin cash, and litecoin are practical options for small-value transactions.


Source: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/ebay-seriously-considering-adding-bitcoin-payments/

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EBay ‘Seriously Considering’ Adding Bitcoin Payments




EBay, one of the world’s largest e-commerce platforms, is considering making the leap into cryptocurrency payments, according to a high-ranking company executive.


EBay ‘Seriously Considering’ Adding Bitcoin Payments

Scott Cutler, senior vice president of eBay Americas, told Yahoo Finance that the e-commerce giant is holding serious discussions about becoming the highest-profile company to accept cryptocurrency payments.

    “This is a trend that everybody is talking about, but sadly, at eBay, we don’t currently accept bitcoin as a form of payment, Cutler said. “We’re seriously considering it as these cryptocurrencies become more of a mainstream” payment instrument, but “we’re not quite there yet.”

Cutler added that the website serves as a popular secondary market for cryptocurrency mining hardware, and third-party sellers have listed thousands of other cryptocurrency-related collectibles.


Cryptocurrency Enters Main Street

Although it does not appear that eBay currently has any concrete plans to adopt cryptocurrency payments, the fact that the company is holding high-level discussions on the matter is the latest testament to how quickly bitcoin has permeated the mainstream.

Last week, bitcoin brokerage app Coinbase briefly became the top app in the Apple Store, signaling that retail investors were onboarding into the bitcoin ecosystem at a breakneck pace — a pace so rapid that Coinbase has suffered persistent outages due to record traffic.

This week, the first bitcoin futures contracts launched on U.S. exchange CBOE, and CME — the world’s largest derivatives exchange — will begin trading bitcoin futures next week. Though primarily targeted at Wall Street, futures are expected to lead to the creation of the first Bitcoin ETF, a retail investor-friendly investment vehicle that can be easily held in brokerage and retirement accounts.

The next watershed moment will be when cryptocurrency becomes so ubiquitous that businesses commonly accept it as payment for goods or services.

Prominent retailers such as Overstock and Newegg have accepted bitcoin for years, but none of retail’s white whales — a group that includes eBay, Amazon, and Alibaba — has formally adopted cryptocurrency payments. Earlier this year, CCN debunked a rumor that Amazon was planning to accept bitcoin. Recently, Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma stated that bitcoin was “not for me,” indicating that the Chinese conglomerate is not likely to adopt a currency that operates without government backing.

Some retailers, including video game distribution platform Steam, have actually stopped accepting bitcoin payments in recent months, citing increasing transaction fees that have accompanied bitcoin’s meteoric rise. However, bitcoin remains an option for big-ticket items, and altcoins such as ethereum, bitcoin cash, and litecoin are practical options for small-value transactions.


Source: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/ebay-seriously-considering-adding-bitcoin-payments/

If this is works out, I can foresee BTC easily surging 100% from current price as adoption rate will grow exponentially.

[Coin-Keeper]

I am active on ebay and I would gladly accept BTC as payment if they allowed it.  Its a very secure payment method for sellers.  When I see a few confirmations I could safely send the product without fear of losing any funding.  Way preferred to credit card for me as  seller.

[Raja_MBZ]

Seems very much a made-up article to me. Seriously, it'd be foolish to even think of anything like that for eBay. eBay can never afford the volatility of bitcoin as a payment processor. See Steam, they removed bitcoin because of crazy changes in prices.

I'm sure even if they're gonna add any crypto-currency as a payment processor, it'd be Ethereum/Litecoin, not bitcoin.

[btcbtq]

This headline is a joke. I recently closed my eBay and PayPal when they restricted my seller account because I started mentioning Bitcoin in my listings. I had 100% positive feedback for over a decade. Now, BTC and CC are the only payments I accept.

[JoinWell.io]

Don't think they will do it with bitcoin.
But if eBay or others like Amazon add crypto payments  - that will be a new era for cc usage, I suppose.

[Kemarit]

Too early to tell guys, we have heard this kind of "seriously considering" with Amazon as well, but things didn't turn out right. On our part, it will be easy, but on the business side, I think they would have to make a lot of adjustments to make this come into fruition. I believed infrastructure wise they have to upgrade to be able to accept bitcoin as payment. They are one of the giants in the online retail industry and it won't be that easy in a blink of an eye to consider and start accepting bitcoin. I would love to see though Ebay began accepting it as I myself was very active before in Ebay selling items, and it ever they "consider" bitcoin, I would suddenly jump again and either be a seller or buyer. Let's see how it goes, and this is really another welcoming news for all of us bitcoin enthusiast. This will be another driver to push bitcoin price further once more.

[rjbtc2017]

Seems like a Marketing ploy for me, Christmas season is now on-going maybe the sales and hype didn't met their expectations, Marketing is one of the answer to at least recall the name of Ebay for all customers. On the other side, I think Ebay can pull off this kind of transactions but remember Amazon? yup, Ebay might end with that kind of hype and in the end there is no "We Accept Bitcoin here" at Ebay Stores. They need to study it more in order to fully integrate Bitcoin as a payment on their online shop and  it will take a long time to do that since Bitcoin is so volatile that Ebay might loss profits from integrating it.

[Guardian.P]

I think many are waiting for Ebay to start accepting crypto-payments. Such an opportunity will be beneficial to both parties, and will entail new customers for both Crypto and Ebay