Overstock to Become the First Big U.S. Online Retailer to Accept Bitcoin

Whereas Bitcoin is facing one setback after the other, it is also receiving acceptance from wide segments; now, Overstock is planning to become the first big U.S. online retailer to accept Bitcoin. According to Patrick Byrne, the company’s libertarian chief executive, Bitcoin is a healthy monetary system which can contribute largely for the organization.

Mr. Byrne talking to media professionals said that Overstock planned to start accepting Bitcoin next year. Though the specific time has not been framed, estimates are that it may start accepting the digital currency as early as the end of the second quarter. The decision is purely based on the convictions Mr. Byrne has for the science and technology and its outcome Bitcoin.

In his statement Mr. Byrne says that he thinks a healthy monetary system at the end of the day isn’t an upside down pyramid based on the whim of a government official, but is based on something that they can’t control. He also says that there are a lot of virtual currencies, but this is the only one he knows of that can’t be created.

Mr. Byrne is a Libertarian

True to his convictions and ideology, Mr. Byrne, a self-proclaimed libertarian believes in the Austrian School of economics. It is to be noted that Austrian School of Economics unlike Chicago School of Economics predict that fiat currencies created for governments by central banks would destabilize the world economy.

Austrian School of Economics is often criticized by the mainstream economists who are dominating the Federal Reserve of the U.S. However, this school has often come up with hard hitting facts and predictions that are undeniable. Mr. Byrne and other libertarians have been supporting Bitcoin for long; even Libertarian Parties of Canada and the U.S. accept them as donations.

Bitcoin whose prices have gone up recently and touched the benchmark of $1200 faced a setback after the Chinese government banned them from financial transactions. Similarly, a guideline issued by the Norwegian government said that Bitcoin is not real money. However, the decision on the part of Overstock seems to give further impetus to the cause when the chips are down for it.

True to his ideas, Mr. Byrne supported the libertarian Ron Paul in the 2012 U.S. presidential election. He says that if there’s going to be some part of the population which adopts it, he thinks that that group will get that business. And the people who switch to it will respect that they started adopting it.

To contact the reporter of this story: Deepak Tiwari at deepak@forexminute.com

Deepak Tiwari, a law graduate, has been working as a journalist for six years now. He currently writes on Bitcoin, economic, and Forex related news at ForexMinute, the brand new financial news portal ...

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