Who Accepts Bitcoins as Payment?
Interesting guest post from the guys at Jincor, whose ICO is launching on December 1st. This first appeared on the blog here.
If you’ve recently learned the answer to the question “What is Bitcoin?” you’re now probably wondering what you can do with this disruptive cryptocurrency, which saw a 55 percent increase in transaction volume this year, exploding to $260 million per day and it’s getting clear — crypto is not a bubble. The answer is obvious: you can use Bitcoin to pay for various goods and services both online and in shops and the number of such points of sales increasing.
Many Bitcoin-friendly merchants use third-party Bitcoin payment service providers such as BitPay to receive settlements for Bitcoin payments directly to their bank accounts. BitPay and other similar services allow merchants to protect themselves against Bitcoin’s volatility. They also make it effortless for anyone — even those who still wonder, “What is Bitcoin?” — to start accepting Bitcoin payments for their business, helping the emerging Bitcoin economy grow larger.
Below is a categorized list of select businesses, organizations, and institutions who accept Bitcoins as payment. The list is by no means exhaustive, but we hope that it provides you with a glimpse into what a future where fiat currencies have been replaced by digital cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin might look like, a future where nobody wonders, “What is Bitcoin?” and “How do cryptos work?”
Online Retailers
Online retailers have been quick to embrace Bitcoin as a convenient alternative to PayPal and similar online payment providers. The first large company that allowed customers to pay with Bitcoins was Overstock.Headquartered in Midvale, Utah, Overstock is an American Internet retailer that sells closeout as well as new merchandise. The company’s CEO, Patrick Byrne, is a huge fan of cryptocurrencies, and he made a deal with Bitcoin exchange Coinbase in 2014 to allow customers to pay with Bitcoins, hoping to save up to 10 percent of all Bitcoin payments as a long-term investment. In August of this year, Byrne told Yahoo Finance that he has recently increased that percentage to 50 percent.
Microsoft has been allowing customers to purchase content in the Windows and Xbox stores since December 2014. Unlike Overstock, Microsoft instantly converts all accepted Bitcoins via an exchange to fiat. That might lead one to believe that the tech giant is not yet ready to bet on Bitcoin’s success, but the reality seems to be very different. Microsoft has developed Azure Blockchain Service, a service that allows users to deploy a fully configured blockchain with a couple of clicks. What’s more, the company is also adapting Excel 2017 for Bitcoin analysis.
Bitcoin is also readily embraced by providers of various digital services, including Namecheap, Steam, PureVPN, ProtonMail, Badoo, OkCupid, and many others.
Traditional Retailers
When Tewit Boriboonchaisiri’s grandfather opened a small noodle shop in Bangkok’s Chinatown over 80 years ago, he most likely never even imagined that his grandson, who is the third-generation owner of the noodle shop, would one day serve customers noodles in exchange for money that depends on electricity.
Similarly, Japanese people would also find it hard to believe just a few decades ago that one of the country’s largest electronics retailers, Bic Camera, would accept Bitcoin at more than 40 stores domestically after a highly successful trial run at the retailer’s flagship store in Tokyo. But because Japan has recently acknowledged Bitcoin as a legal payment method, we can expect much more retailers to follow Bic Camera’s example.
Pick n Pay, South Africa’s second-largest chain of supermarkets, is currently testing how the customers would react to the possibility of paying for their groceries with the cryptocurrency. “Pick n Pay is also present in other countries, including Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Namibia, Mozambique, and Zambia — if all of its stores started accepting bitcoin, it would be one of the cryptocurrency’s largest wins in Africa,” reports CryptoCoinsNews.
Travel Companies
Operating over 200 travel booking websites in about 75 countries, Expedia is easily one of the largest online travel booking agencies. The company is also one of the earliest major adopters of Bitcoin. Expedia started accepting Bitcoin in June of 2014 by teaming with Coinbase to implement a new payment option. “Expedia is always looking ahead to new and emerging technologies and bitcoin is exactly this for us. We see it as a learning opportunity, and we continue to use the information we learn about bitcoin transactions to enhance our customer experience,” a spokesperson told Yahoo Finance.
Those flying with Peach Aviation, a low-cost airline based in Japan, will be able to pay for their tickets using Bitcoin by the end of this year. Those who have $250,000 sitting in their Bitcoin wallet don’t have to wait that long because they can purchase a trip to space with Virgin Galactic right now. And those who are afraid of heights can use their crypto funds to order a TeslaModel S via Shakepay, which is a VISA debit card connected to a Bitcoin wallet.
Charities, Non-Profits, and Institutions
Many charitable organizations and non-profits around the world accept Bitcoin donations. Save the Children, for example, an international non-governmental organization that promotes children’s rights and supports children in developing countries. It currently operates in over 120 countries and uses Bitcoin to purchase everything from soap to antibiotics to vaccine coolers to health worker tools. Even though many children who receive help from Save the Children don’t know what is Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency has still a tremendously positive effect on their lives.
Wikipedia is perhaps the best-known non-profit organization in the world that accepts Bitcoin donations, using them to give everyone free access to the largest and most popular general reference work on the Internet.
After being asked multiple times by parents whether they could pay student tuition with Bitcoin, the Montessori Schools of New York City decided to partner with Bitcoin exchange Coinbase to accept Bitcoin. “We looked at the pros and cons of accepting it and decided that now is probably a good time because it’s starting to enter the mainstream,” the school stated.
Businesses and Organizations No Longer Ask, “What Is Crypto?”
After reading all above written most of us (especially the business owners) would probably think that it would be great to accept new payment method. Obviously, it’s just a matter of time when cryptocurrencies become a new standard for any financial relations.
While industry leaders are already aware of the benefits, which cryptocurrencies may bring to their businesses most of the small and medium companies prefer to stay aside, due to lack of education among general public, lack of regulatory and business compliance of cryptocurrency transactions and smart contracts, unclear legal status, technical difficulties, risks of using existing public blockchains and etc..
However, the solution is almost there: secure private blockchain that has been being built by Jincor team with many amazing features. For instance digital verification for the companies — therefore every person and/or company registered in the system connect their digital ID to a real-world entity ensuring that all the interactions between users on the platform meet regulatory and corporate compliance policies.
Jincor is back in Switzerland! This time our team members are in Lugano for participating in @lanternforum. Tomorrow at 11:00 our International Ambassador will give a lecture on how blockchain can manage smart contracts in the corporate world in the Conference Room B. pic.twitter.com/wF9ohhlEFj
— Jincor (@jincor_ico) November 20, 2017
The final goal of Jincor is to help any business to unleash the power of cryptocurrencies in a crystal clear, easy to use interface and help to solve all the problems related to regulatory & business compliance, company identification and etc.
