Coinbase and Overstock.com Announce Largest Bitcoin Merchant Integration To Date

[NateVest]

Posts from The Coinbase Blog for 01/10/2014

The Latest From Coinbase.com

In This Issue:
Coinbase and Overstock.com Announce Largest Bitcoin Merchant Integration To Date
Android SDK Released - Accept Bitcoin Payment In Your Own Android App
Coinbase and Overstock.com Announce Largest Bitcoin Merchant Integration To Date

Jan 09, 2014 11:30 am

Coinbase is proud to announce a new partnership with Overstock.com, a leading discount online shopping retailer, which will make it possible for consumers to purchase items on their site using bitcoin.

Starting today, bitcoin will be a purchase option for any item sold on Overstock.com via Coinbase.

This marks the largest retail Bitcoin implementation to date. For the first time ever, customers can purchase a wide selection of goods with bitcoins from electronics to home accessories from a trusted, branded vendor. Coinbase is excited to serve as Overstock.com's official digital wallet to facilitate all related transactions on their site.

Instant Exchange

We offer merchants like Overstock.com an instant exchange feature to ensure they have no exchange rate risk: merchants price all of their goods in dollars, and lock in the exchange rate of every payment. This helps ensure that merchants know the exact dollar figure of every bitcoin purchase. This helps gives merchants peace of mind, and protects them from volatility.

Merchant Platform

Overstock.com joins a growing list of merchants who have embraced Bitcoin, including our current partners OKCupid, Reddit and Khan Academy, who are enjoying the clear economic benefits of accepting payment in the form of bitcoin, not the least of which is the elimination of credit card transaction fees of upwards of 2% per transaction.

We believe that Bitcoin is nearing a tipping point for broad consumer adoption, and we couldn't be more thrilled to be working with the team at Overstock.com to help make that a reality.

Read More
share on Twitter Like Coinbase and Overstock.com Announce Largest Bitcoin Merchant Integration To Date on Facebook
Android SDK Released - Accept Bitcoin Payment In Your Own Android App

Jan 09, 2014 11:08 am



Today, in collaboration with BitMonet, we are releasing an Android SDK that makes it super simple for Android developers to accept Bitcoin in their Android app.

Any Android app developer can now accept Bitcoin payments without the customer ever leaving the app.

This enables a number of use cases, but it's worth calling out two in particular: micro-transactions and debit payments.

It's worth noting of course, that you should ensure your app is complying with the Google Play guidelines before adding additional payment methods.

Micro-transactions

Micro-transactions on mobile have traditionally been difficult due to high fees. They use credit cards underneath, which come with a base fee of 20-30 cents. This makes them impractical for anything but virtual goods (which have 100% margins), and impossible below thresholds of about $1. Many developers have resorted to showing ads to try and monetize their apps instead, but ads aren't as effective on mobile where there is limited screen real estate.

In short, the fee structure of credit cards makes micro-transactions on mobile difficult. This is where bitcoin comes in. Especially on Coinbase (where micro-transactions between Coinbase accounts are off blockchain and have zero fees), micro-transactions suddenly become easy and free. The customer simply connects their Coinbase account, grants the app permission, and can then perform one-click buys in the app. We hope this SDK and related efforts will spark a huge shift in the mobile landscape as developers are able to monetize their apps more efficiently without resorting to ads.

Debits and ?Pull? Payments

Traditionally bitcoin has only allowed push payments where the customer originates the transaction. This is great for some purchases, but doesn't fit into all business models. In the case of a taxi app, for example, the appropriate amount is typically charged to a credit card on file once the customer reaches their destination. The customer has a more convenient checkout experience, and the taxi company is comfortable providing the ride before collecting payment, knowing they can initiate a charge at the end of it.

The Coinbase API is unique in that it allows these types of transactions in bitcoin by making use of OAuth2. You may be familiar with it if you?ve ever signed in to a site using your Google account, or Facebook connect. OAuth2 allows customers to grant special permissions to certain apps - in this case the ability to charge some amount of bitcoin to your account. Doing so of course requires a high degree of trust between the customer and merchant (just like adding a credit card online) and is completely optional - not all consumers will feel comfortable using this option. OAuth2 offers one additional protection over credit cards, however, where the customer can revoke the apps permission at any time from their account settings page, so the customer remains in control of when to end the relationship.

The SDK allows the flexibility for apps to request a single charge that requires your permission, or permission to debit within limits in the future (much like keeping a card on file).

Conclusion

The new Android SDK allows you to:

Accept bitcoin payments from within Android apps - the customer never needs to leave the app to pay.

Accept payments with zero transaction fees, and just a few taps for seamless checkout.

Perform micro-transactions on mobile with zero fees.

Initiate debit payments in bitcoin, and support other payment flows which weren't possible previously using bitcoin.
The SDK is open source and available at https://github.com/coinbase/coinbase-android-sdk

We look forward to seeing what Android developers can build with this SDK, and will continue to iterate as we get feedback from our community!

[rghy2]

This is really exciting, I hope amazon follows suit!

[NateVest]

Bitcoin Is Good | Re/code

[Havesked4]

There are a lot of things you need to follow for improving the crypto crush options. I have found some of the best options on the Best Cryptocurrency Options where I have found about the trading and crypto reading material as well. This is really good to see the trading options as well.

[Lavarda]

This is one of the coolest cryptocurrency exchanges. But now I want to tell you about something else. I want to share a link with you https://duckdice.io/dice/xrp-ripple with the possibility of playing crypto ripple online dice. This is a very fun game that will help you play and earn expensive and popular cryptocurrency in the easiest and fastest way. Good luck!