Spending the world’s most popular cryptocurrency is still a big challenge. Although there are a few merchants out there which accept BTC directly, none are particularly big, other than Overstock. It now seems eBay may welcome Bitcoin to its platform in the very near future, if recent reports are to be believed.
eBay may Embrace Bitcoin After all
Most people who have ever dealt with eBay know the company isn’t too keen on alternative payment methods. More specifically, it would prefer that people stick with PayPal – despite these companies being separate entities these days – or use wire transfers. Even when Skrill (formerly known as Moneybookers) was added as an option, the platform still preferred users to accept PayPal as well. Avoiding potential scammers and fake listings has always been a major concern for the company.
Moreover, eBay doesn’t have a great reputation when it comes to cryptocurrency listings either. That is only normal, as no one should sell cryptocurrency on auction sites in the first place. There is no recourse if a deal goes awry, and it would reflect badly on the company if a buyer or seller were to file such a complaint. Rest assured such events have transpired on the platform over the past few years. It has always seemed as if eBay would rather stay as far away from Bitcoin as possible.
That situation may come to change soon, according to an article on Yahoo Finance. It is possible to buy crypto mining equipment on the platform, or any merchandise related to cryptocurrency. However, one must pay for such items in the usual way, which often involves PayPal. It seems the company is considering adding a Bitcoin payment option in the near future. There is no timeline for when this might occur, and the company is still “only seriously considering” this option for the future.
Integrating Bitcoin payments shouldn’t pose much of a challenge, even to eBay. It remains to be seen if the site would go for an existing payment processor – BitPay, for example – or use its own built-in solution for such payments. Moreover, the company hasn’t specified whether it would charge fees in Bitcoin or convert those to US dollars on the fly. There are still a few blanks left to fill in, yet things are certainly looking interesting for eBay right now. Accepting Bitcoin may help the company’s stock rise in value as well.
Moreover, this spells an interesting future for the Bitcoin community as a whole. While the world’s leading cryptocurrency is mainly a store of value and investment vehicle right now, it may yet find its way back to being the currency most of us had envisioned it would become. Higher fees and frequent transaction delays may have a say in the matter, though, and things certainly don’t look too great in that regard.
At the same time, one can’t deny the demand for Bitcoin has never been higher than it is today. Whether or not that means people will spend this valuable currency on a platform such as eBay remains to be seen. Rest assured there is a market waiting for such a development as we speak. Competing with Amazon seems to be a top priority for the auction giant, and that just may require embracing Bitcoin.
