(Updated with comment from Braintree)
Slowly but surely, Bitcoin is getting accepted into the mainstream. I mean, it still has a long way to go before you will see a lot of people using it, but more and more well known sites and companies are beginning to see it as something real and viable.
Now it might be getting another big boost, with news that it may soon be accepted by one of the Internet's biggest e-commerce companies.
EBay has recently been in talks with Bitcoin transaction providers, such as Coinbase, in order to start accepting the digital currency in its Braintree payments subsidiary, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal. No formal agreement has yet been made.
Such a deal would not allow users to use Bitcoin on either eBay or PayPal, at least not yet, though it seems likely that they eventually would. It would, however, allow users to pay for services who use Braintree software for payments processing.
That includes such hot startups as Uber and Airbnb. Obviously being able to use Bitcoin on these sites (one of which recently raised the most money ever in a venture capital round) would go a long way toward legitimizing it.
"We do believe that Bitcoin will play an important role in payments in the future but we have nothing to announce," a Braintree spokesperson told VatorNews.
Braintree is an e-commerce and m-commerce platform that allows for single click payments. It provides merchants with a secure payment gateway, merchant account, recurring billing and credit card storage.
The company was purchased by eBay for $800 million around a year ago, and recently added in full PayPal integration.
Some of the companies that have already started accepting Bitcoin include Newegg, Expedia, Dell and RealtyShares. Earlier this year Zynga partnered with Bitpay for a Bitcoin payment test as well. Bitcoin has also been embraced by Apple, which recently changed the rules in the App Store to allow apps to accept virtual currency, as long as its legal.
Overstock.com, which accepts Bitcoin, has been a major boost. The company said this week that it expects to add 4 cents a share to its earnings thanks to Bitcoin, which is said could rack up to between $6 million and $8 million this year.
Even governments have taken a shine to it, with California passing a bill in June to legalize digital currencies. In actuality, it simply repealed a previous law, which had banned the use of any currency other than those issued by the United States government.
VatorNews has reached out to eBayfor confirmation but the company was not available for comment. We will update if we learn more.
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Zynga is the largest social gaming company with 8.5 million daily users and 45 million monthly users. Zynga’s games are available on Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Hi5, Friendster, Yahoo! and the iPhone, and include Texas Hold’Em Poker, Mafia Wars, YoVille, Vampires, Street Racing, Scramble and Word Twist. The company is funded by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, IVP, Union Square Ventures, Foundry Group, Avalon Ventures, Pilot Group, Reid Hoffman and Peter Thiel. Zynga is headquartered at the Chip Factory in San Francisco. For more information, please visit www.zynga.com.
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Airbnb.com is the “Ebay of space.” The online marketplace allows anyone from private residents to commercial properties to rent out their extra space. The reputation-based site allows for user reviews, verification, and online transactions, for which Airbnb takes a commission. As of June, 2009, the San Francisco-based company has listings in over 1062 cities in 76 countries.
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Uber is a ridesharing service headquartered in San Francisco, United States, which operates in multiple international cities. The company uses a smartphone application to arrange rides between riders and drivers.
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RealtyShares is an online investment platform that uses crowdfunding to pool investors into private real estate investments. Accredited Investor members can browse a variety of investment opportunities, review details on the investment and invest as little as $1,000. Execution of investor documents and fund transfers are handled securely through our platform, allowing investors to complete the entire transaction process through our site.
RealtyShares targets both residential and commercial investment opportunities. Today we offer both fixed-income investments in the form of first-position loans secured by 1-4 unit residential properties usually yielding between 8-10% as well as equity investments in apartments, retail and office properties. Each investment property is professionally operated and managed by a dedicated Real Estate Company making the investment completely passive to investors.
