Actual, real, economic benefits of using bitcoin

[madfranks]

http://blog.coinbase.com/post/78558321110/coinbase-and-overstock-com-the-results-are-in

In January, we announced a partnership with Overstock.com which makes it possible for consumers to purchase items on Overstock.com using bitcoin. Today, we are excited to announce that Overstock.com has surpassed $1,000,000 of sales in bitcoin transactions. We also think it’s a fitting time to share some data that helps quantify the post-integration impact on Overstock.com’s business.

The charts below reflect 50 days of data following the launch of bitcoin on Overstock.com on January 9th. During this time, more than 4,000 customers made purchases with bitcoin on Overstock.com. The average order size for a bitcoin customer ($226) was 34% greater compared to customers paying in USD ($168). As depicted in the pie chart, over half of all customers paying in bitcoin were new to Overstock.com (58%), having never purchased goods from the site before.


Average Order Size is 34% greater for Bitcoin customers
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/qhWE3G0Gd3LP64R49Lfti-IJpgwyndc5E8Pu-mg-vllZeSBKXoMG_AwkJCwaqwP604FQFjaTxUpCyJcGGotS-rLVf5se8MxK1QA3JyJzX9oNctF3nR787-pmPB1VRQ

New customers comprise 58% of Bitcoin orders
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/b_p2MBD7vOiSPW4pAhmuN4fA1q5MgVPEZMV3IWqIUgAF-RMXA-N9sQ-ftDy1r0_InjA-QNkVSq_t0RQjYV0gYopcVUn2JG40AsltvrMlo3fIYcDRgvcWhg MAkxil5Q


This data illustrates the positive impact that bitcoin payment are having on top-line revenue growth for Overstock.com.

Net profitability has also improved, with processing fee for bitcoin transactions averaging less than 1% vs. ~ 2.2% plus $0.20 for credit card card transactions. For a low-margin, high volume business like Overstock.com, these savings are substantial and, ultimately, return greater value to shareholders.

We look forward to welcoming new retailers to the platform and providing increasing options for the growing population of bitcoin wallet holders.


“There’s clearly a huge community of people who support this. Our customer service lines are going nuts with people who appreciate this.”
-Patrick Byrne, Overstock.com Chairman and CEO

[madfranks]

For high volume internet businesses, <1% fees versus over >2% for credit cards can make a huge difference. With this news, how long until amazon accepts bitcoins as well? Overstock has already showed how simple it can be.

[Horn]

With this news, how long until amazon accepts bitcoins as well?

Until Coinbase starts getting hit with denial of service attacks?

[Ares]

Until Coinbase starts getting hit with denial of service attacks?

You can mitigate DDoS. Here's an example. The backend could be a private server linked to overstock (in this example). So if someone decides to target coinbase their front end service which does business with the masses will most definitely be affected. While their back end server that is linked to overstock with a security token won't even notice there is a DDoS going on. The security token is generated when overstock partnered with coinbase, and their server (coinbase) won't talk to anyone without that token rendering DDoS meaningless.