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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Half-Cow, Half-Machine Artificial Heart Implanted in First Human

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This week, French surgeons implanted a Carmat artificial heart in a human patient for the very first time. The device, which combines mechanical components and heart tissue derived from cows, is the first artificial heart designed for long-term use up to five years.

Standard artificial hearts and heart-assist devices are only meant to be used short term: harsh mechanical pumps shred and damage blood cells, and plastic surfaces promote blood clot formation. The Carmat heart was designed for up to five years of use, employing flexible, hydraulically-operated chambers that squeeze, rather than pump, the blood into the circulatory system, lined with natural bovine heart tissue to prevent clotting.

Still, the Carmat heart has its drawbacks — at 2lbs, it weighs almost three times as much as the average human heart, and each one costs more than $200,000. The device was approved for human trials earlier this year. The Paris patient who received the first device on Wednesday is awake and talking, and being watched closely in intensive care. [Reuters]

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Relive Man's First Launch to the Moon, 45 Years Ago Today

On December 21st, 1968, three men left earth and became the first humans to orbit the moon. Their entire journey was legendary, and even 45 years later watching Apollo 8 launch is almost heart-stopping.

Commander Frank Borman, Command Module Pilot James Lovell, and Lunar Module Pilot William Anders were the first men to leave our planet's orbit. They were the first to view the full earth, and the first to lay eyes on the far side of the moon. Their mission was the first manned flight of the immensely powerful Saturn V rocket, and a late-in-the-game mission change pushed the launch date from spring of 1969 to December 1968, robbing them of three months of training.

They still pulled it off, and during their three-day voyage to the moon, the astronauts snapped the most famous and recognizable photograph ever taken: Earthrise.

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On December 24th, while orbiting the moon, the Apollo 8 crew did a Christmas Eve TV broadcast, with readings from the Book of Genesis. It was the most-watched television event to date. After 20 hours and 10 orbits around the moon, Apollo 8 headed back to earth, and six days, 3 hours and 42 seconds after launch, the crew splashed down in the Pacific Ocean south of Hawaii. And back to life on earth.

There's something poignant about the first men to leave Earth's orbit launching on December 21st, the longest night of the year. It's as though they picked the day when the dark sky was the most expansive, the most receptive to travelers. 45 years on, it's still awe-inspiring.

H/T Jason Major for the video

Related The Saturn V is the tallest, heaviest, and most powerful rocket humans have ever built. In 13 missions, it took 24 astronauts beyond earth's… Read…

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