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Uber CEO Says Firm Will ‘Lean Into Crypto’ When It Becomes ‘Environmentally Friendly,’ Less Expensive to Transact

11/02/2022 by Idelto Editor

Speaking in an interview on Friday, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi explained that the company will accept cryptocurrencies “at some point.” Khosrowshahi noted that there were two downsides to leveraging the cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, such as “the exchange mechanism is expensive, [and] it’s not great for the environment.”

Uber CEO Says Firm Will Likely Accept Cryptocurrencies at Some Point, Company Converses About the Subject All the Time

At some point in time, Uber Technologies, the mobility service provider (ride-share service) will accept cryptocurrencies, according to Uber’s CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. The Uber executive said this while speaking with Bloomberg Markets’ show hosts Emily Chang and Guy Johnson on Friday. During the interview, Khosrowshahi said that Uber is discussing cryptocurrency “all the time” and he noted that they have become extremely valuable.

“I think right now what we see with bitcoin and some of the other [cryptocurrencies] is that they are quite valuable as a store of value,” Khosrowshahi said. However, the Uber CEO noted that the cost to exchange can be “expensive” and he further highlighted that “it’s not great for the environment.” Khosrowshahi continued:

As the exchange mechanism becomes less expensive, becomes more environmentally friendly, I think you will see us lean into crypto a little bit more.

Although many rumors have circulated in the past, Uber has never really shown it will “lean into crypto” any time soon. Interestingly, at the end of July 2018, Uber co-founder, Oscar Salazar founded the crypto exchange platform Voyager. In mid-December that year, Fold made it possible to utilize bitcoin (BTC) with Uber by leveraging the Fold application. Moreover, its been known for quite some time that Khosrowshahi is an early bitcoin advocate.

Writing for Quartz, the author Joon Ian Wong explained that when Khosrowshahi became Uber’s new CEO, he previously led the travel-booking platform Expedia for 12 years. “Expedia showed an adventurous streak on Khosrowshahi’s watch, becoming one of the first major merchants to accept bitcoin as a form of payment, back in 2014,” the Quartz contributor said in August 2017.

What do you think about Dara Khosrowshahi’s statements about Uber accepting cryptocurrencies? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

South African Payment Gateway Drops BTC Over Fees and Network Congestion

13/07/2019 by Idelto Editor

On July 12, South African payment gateway service Payfast announced the company is dropping bitcoin core (BTC) payments due to network congestion and high fees. Payfast emphasized that BTC has a number of limitations and design flaws which makes it an “impractical substitute for cash.”

Also read: G20 Leaders Issue Declaration on Crypto Assets – A Look at Their Commitments

Network Congestion and High Transaction Fees Force Payfast to Drop BTC Support

According to a blog post written by Payfast, one of South Africa’s largest online payment gateways, BTC payments will no longer be processed after July 20, 2019. Payfast is a popular service provider with more than 80,000 registered merchants and was founded in 2007 by Jonathan Smit and Andy Higgins. The company blogpost details that unfortunately the company has found numerous limitations and “design flaws unique to Bitcoin that make it an impractical substitute for cash.” This includes high transaction fees and long confirmation times for Payfast customers. The company explained that it had tried various ways to mitigate the issues at hand, but had found that the underlying problem stems from the root of BTC’s fundamentals.

“The resultant poor user experience has led us to re-evaluate bitcoin as a payment method on our platform and a decision has been taken to discontinue support for bitcoin from midnight 20 July 2019,” Payfast wrote. The company further said that BTC once held the promise of a “global currency that would allow a faster, cheaper, and easier way to move money on the Internet,” but this never came to fruition. “Our aim was to enable that promise for our buyers and merchants, and to support this alternative to traditional payment methods,” Payfast highlighted. The South African company had partnered with the local cryptocurrency exchange Luno to provide an intermediary between a buyer’s BTC wallet and the Payfast service.

@PayFast Bitcoin Cash is the same version of Bitcoin that used to be fast, cheap and reliable. Bitpay supports it.

— ₿ Mike (@libertarianbit) July 12, 2019

Payfast remarked that buyers always paid the BTC amount, while sellers would receive a rand payment to their accounts. Luno also “locked the Bitcoin to ZAR exchange rate for a 10 minute window,” similarly to many cryptocurrency invoice solutions. For instance, the Atlanta-based Bitpay’s invoices last 14 minutes. However, if the person’s BTC transaction did not confirm within Luno’s invoice window, the payment was unsuccessful and a refund would be due. The Payfast blog post noted:

As Bitcoin has grown in popularity, it has become increasingly difficult for the network to sufficiently confirm transactions within the 10 minute time limit. Since the network isn’t able to handle the volume of instructions at the speed required, the majority of Bitcoin transactions on the Payfast platform ended up being unsuccessful.

A Tragic Trend of Lost Businesses Making HODL the Only Option

As the news spread across social media, some people said they had expected the announcement, while others were surprised and even a bit salty toward Payfast. Bitcoin ABC developer Amaury Séchet (Deadalnix) said on Twitter that “the tragedy continues — One more payment processor dropping bitcoin.” “Payfast, you might want to consider switching to bitcoin cash instead. You are experiencing exactly why the fork happened,” Séchet added.

However, well known member of the Monero (XMR) community Riccardo Spagni‏ said the blog post was a “Garbage article from Payfast on why they’re removing bitcoin support — Sounds like they have no clue how Bitcoin works.” One person replied to Spagni’s criticism and said that it was not polite to blame and name call Payfast engineers. “If the tech does not meet their needs, they can move to better solutions,” he explained. Payfast’s blog post further sparked a number of BCH supporters to vocalize that there was a solution available right now for Payfast and that the company should try bitcoin cash instead.

“I have made zero payments with BTC in the past 3 years, but dozens with BCH with no issues and paying pennies in fees,” a BCH supporter chimed in after Payfast made the announcement. “If you add BCH you will have my business.”

This isn’t the first time bitcoin core (BTC) payments have been plagued with complaints about high fees and transaction congestion. There have been many well known companies that have dropped BTC support for these very reasons. Back in the summer of 2018 the brothers Patrick and John Collison, the cofounders of Stripe, explained why the company decided to drop BTC.

The Collison brothers questioned the BTC community and told them they faced a fork in the road where architects of the software chose to optimize BTC to be a form of “digital gold or a store of value.” “At the time we made our decision, it was trending towards being a digital store of value,” Patrick told the press. He wished the BTC crowd the best going forward and insisted that “if it starts increasing [in use] again as a payment method, then sure, great, we’ll go back and we’ll add [BTC].”

Many other companies have dropped BTC support over the years almost immediately after BTC transaction fees started to spike infeasibly and became unpredictable. Businesses such as Expedia, Dell Computers, Steam Games, Reddit, Fiverr, and Paypal stopped supporting BTC. Moreover, many startups that were once looking to use BTC in applications also ditched the cryptocurrency network for alternative blockchains with cheaper transaction fees. Payfast eliminating BTC was also big news on Reddit forums and many crypto supporters sarcastically called the company’s move a “big win for BTC maximalists.” One Reddit user chortled:

Thank god all these wasteful use cases are being eliminated so that HODL is the only option for people which will ensure that moon lambos are handed out to all the Bitcoin Maxis by next halvening.

What do you think about Payfast dropping BTC support because of network congestion and high transaction fees? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Image credits: Shutterstock, Payfast, and Twitter.

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These Websites Help You Shop With Major Retailers Using Cryptocurrency

21/06/2019 by Idelto Editor

These Websites Help You Shop From Major Retailers Using Cryptocurrencies

Cryptocurrency users are often forced to convert their coins to fiat in order to purchase items from leading retailers and ecommerce platforms such as Walmart and Home Depot, Amazon, Aliexpress, and Ebay. The hesitation of these merchants to embrace crypto payments has created a niche that’s being occupied by online businesses that are bridging the gap. They take care of your order, arrange the shipping and are willing to accept your electronic cash.

Also read: Latin America and Turkey Have the Most Cryptocurrency Users, Poll Shows

Purchase Items From Walmart and Home Depot, Pay With Coins via Alagoria

Using cryptocurrencies for online purchases is by design easier and cheaper than traditional payment methods. Wider adoption is needed, however, to take full advantage of the benefits that come with crypto payments. Many well-established retailers are still reluctant to add them to their payment options but that doesn’t mean you can’t shop from their platforms using your digital coins.

Last week, news.Bitcoin.com told you about Alagoria, a platform that gives you the opportunity to purchase products sold online by two major U.S. retailers, Walmart and Home Depot. To order an item from them and pay with crypto, you need to find it on their websites and copy the link to its page. When you paste the URL into the search bar on Alegoria.com, it will check the latest price and availability and calculate the sales tax and shipping cost.

Then you can add the product to your shopping cart where you’ll see its original price, the estimated sales tax, the shipping charge and the total you have to pay in U.S. dollars. To proceed you need to log in to your account and to create one you must provide a valid email address and a password. At checkout, you can choose to pay with one of four major cryptocurrencies. The platform currently accepts bitcoin cash (BCH), bitcoin core (BTC), litecoin (LTC), and zcash (ZEC).

One of the most attractive features of Alagoria is the special guarantee they offer which takes into account the irreversibility of cryptocurrency transactions. All customers shopping with the platform are covered for damages or costs that might occur as a result of their purchases through Alagoria for up to $10,000. They can also return an item during the 30 days of its original delivery date. Items that arrive damaged or incorrect are eligible for 100% free returns while you’ll have to pay for the shipping back to the retailer for those that are returned for other reasons.

Buy Products From Amazon and Book Flights on Expedia With Bitcoin Superstore

Alagoria currently ships only to customers based in the U.S. Fortunately, there are other alternatives for the global market. Bitcoin Superstore is one of them. Its operator is based in Florida but it delivers to over 50 countries worldwide and accepts about a dozen cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin cash (BCH). You can use the platform to buy from Amazon and many other online retailers. You can also book flights and hotels on Expedia or Priceline and even order grocery deliveries or pickup from Amazon Prime Now and Walmart Grocery Pickup.

The best part is that no signup is required and Bitcoin Superstore promises a quick checkout with digital currencies that should take only around three minutes. The website has a feature called Purchase Now which works similarly to Alagoria – you have to submit the URL of a product you are interested in – but the main difference is that you need to manually enter the price, including the shipping cost, and make sure the item is not restricted before placing an order.

After you add a product to the shopping cart, Bitcoin Superstore will calculate the applicable sales tax. When you proceed to checkout, you’ll be taken to a page where you are required to provide your name and shipping address, phone number and email address. You’ll also be prompted to choose the cryptocurrency you want to pay with. The platform currently supports BCH, BTC, DASH, DGB, ETH, LTC, TRX, XVG, VIA, ZEC, XMR, XRP, and NANO. The fiat total will be converted to the crypto of your choice. Ordering a pair of men’s shoes from Amazon priced at $107 with shipping to Europe will cost you approximately 0.265 BCH at the time of writing.

Bitcoin Superstore doesn’t stop there. The website sells a great variety of gift cards, offered by merchants from various sectors, which you can buy with cryptocurrency. For convenience, they are listed by categories such as Apparel, Automotive, Electronics, Restaurants, Retail, Travel, and TV & Music. The platform can also help you with many suggestions on how to spend your digital coins that are published in a section called Live on Crypto. You’ll find information on how to order from Ebay, Alibaba, and Apple and receive booking support when you want to rent accommodation from Airbnb using crypto.

Order Merchandise From Aliexpress, Spend Your Crypto Through Olodolo

Olodolo is a website that specializes in delivering products you can purchase with cryptocurrency from Aliexpress. You don’t have to register or create an account to use it. The platform works similarly to Alagoria and Bitcoin Superstore. Simply paste an Aliexpress link or a product ID into its search bar and Olodolo will find the relevant offer. Then you have to select a desired quantity and a country to ship to and you’ll be provided with several shipping methods to choose from.

Proceeding to checkout will take to the Coinpayments website, a POS provider that facilitates crypto payments. There you’ll be required to share your shipping information including name, address, email, and phone number. The price of the item and the total with shipping cost and tax are displayed in U.S. dollars. You’ll be able to make the payment in one of three supported cryptocurrencies – bitcoin core, litecoin and ethereum. Choose the coin you are planning to pay with before completing the checkout.

And if you prefer ordering from Ebay, an online marketplace called Forra can help you place an order and pay with cryptocurrencies. The Ebay-listed items on its website are priced in U.S. dollars but the platform currently accepts bitcoin cash (BCH), bitcoin core (BTC), ethereum (ETH) and litecoin (LTC). It uses an escrow system and the services of crypto exchanges such as Coinbase and Gemini to complete the transactions. It charges a 3% fee on each purchase.

Beside the reposted Ebay ads, Forra has a section with its own listings. Other features include the “Cheaper than Amazon” section as well as an option allowing buyers to file a request for a particular item they want to purchase with coins. Forra now offers products from many different sellers in categories such as Computers, Software, Books, Tools, Home Products, Clothing, and Video Games. Its founder Patrick Manfra recently told news.Bitcoin.com they have users not only from the United States but other countries as well.

Platforms like the ones mentioned in this article can be very useful for the global crypto community but there are also websites focusing on countries where large portions of the population remain unbanked and many small businesses find traditional banking services too expensive. Depot.co.ke is one such example – it offers a wide range of products on the Kenyan market, from books to computers, and imports items sold on Amazon, Alibaba or Aliexpress. The platform accepts payments in bitcoin cash, the popularity of which is growing in countries like Kenya because of its low cost and fast transactions.

For more ideas about various products you can purchase with your bitcoin cash (BCH), check out the Spend Bitcoin Cash page developed by Bitcoin.com. You can use it to shop online or to order gift cards for major retailers and service providers listed in categories such as Electronics, Sports and Outdoors, Home and Garden, and Travel and Lodging.

Have you used any of these websites? Do you know other platforms that offer similar services? Tell us in the comments section below.

Disclaimer: Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to third party companies or any of their affiliates or services. Bitcoin.com is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any third party content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock.

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Expedia Drops Bitcoin Payments, Official Confirms

30/06/2018 by Idelto Editor

Travel booking platform Expedia has stopped accepting bitcoin (BTC). A company representative confirmed the policy change, while stating that various payment options are being continuously evaluated without elaborating on the details. Expedia has been supporting bitcoin payments since 2014.

Also read: Russian Railways Eyes Crypto for Tickets, Blockchain for Cargo

Expedia Confirms Suspension of BTC Payment Option

Expedia.com, one of the world’s largest travel sites offering booking services for flights, hotels, and car rentals, is currently not accepting bitcoin (BTC). This week, the news was shared on Reddit by traveling bitcoiners who expressed their disappointment with the absence of the cryptocurrency among the payment options. Bitcoin payments have been available on Expedia for years.

Responding to a request for more details from Nathalie Stucky of news.Bitcoin.com, a company representative confirmed the reports via email. Acknowledging the grievances of cryptocurrency users, Christie Hudson, Sr. Communications Manager at Expedia – North America, explained:

I can confirm that as of May 10, 2018, Expedia no longer supports Bitcoin as a payment method. Currently, we do not feel that we are able to offer the best experience for those using Bitcoin, but will continue to evaluate various options in order to offer travelers flexible payment solutions.

According to the information provided by Reddit user bowiestar, the bitcoin payments have been suspended since June 10. Bowiestar is quoting the travel agency’s customer support service.

No official announcement has been published on Expedia’s website, at least not in the Newsroom section. At the same time, the Terms & Conditions page for the bitcoin payment option is still accessible.

Attempts to book a flight from the EU return credit card thumbnails beneath the “How would you like to pay?” question at checkout.

Buying a Ticket, Booking a Hotel with Bitcoin

Expedia started accepting bitcoin exactly four years ago. “Offering travelers another way to book online, customers can now shop from the world-class inventory of a vast array of hotels available on Expedia.com, and for the first time ever beginning today, easily pay for their hotel accommodations using bitcoin,” stated the official announcement published on June 11, 2014.

The crypto payment option was offered through a partnership with the US-based crypto exchange and wallet provider Coinbase. In order to complete the booking process, customers were redirected to Coinbase’s website where they were able to see the total at an exchange rate set by the trading platform. Some comments in the forums suggest that Expedia might have stopped the bitcoin payments due to Coinbase’s decision to discontinue custodial services for merchants.

There are a number of alternatives that crypto enthusiasts can turn to for their bitcoin-paid travel and accommodation. Cheapair.com has been considering working with Bitpay to process bitcoin payments, as news.Bitcoin.com recently reported. It has been accepting bitcoin since 2013, again previously using Coinbase as a payment processor.

The checkout on Cheapair’s website now offers bitcoin (BTC), bitcoin cash (BCH), litecoin (LTC), and dash (DASH) as active payment methods. Payments with three of these cryptocurrencies, BCH, LTC and DASH, were introduced in May and are currently processed by Gocoin.

“In different ways, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Dash all promise improved transactability than their predecessor, with faster transaction times and/or lower fees,” Cheapair noted in a press release. “Over the last six months, we’ve seen a huge uptick in the number of customers requesting alternative currencies, so we’ve worked hard to integrate the three that were most requested,” said CEO Jeff Klee.

Another travel agency that accepts bitcoin for plane and train tickets, cars and hotel rooms, is Destinia. It currently supports both bitcoin core (BTC) and bitcoin cash (BCH) payments. Two more platforms accepting bitcoin for their services are abitsky.com and BTCtrip.

Do you think Expedia will reintroduce bitcoin payments in the future? Share your expectations in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock.

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Coinbase Remains the Most Successful and Important Company in the Crypto Industry

14/05/2018 by Idelto Editor

On its 6th birthday, Coinbase received high praise from Shapeshift’s Erik Voorhees. He Tweeted, “Coinbase remains the most successful and important company in the crypto industry.” Arguably, that is very much the case. The San Francisco-based cryptocurrency exchange with its barebone menu of offerings, combined with its easy user-interface and relatively smooth onboarding (almost no upfront deposit needed), provide an envious business model. That’s not to write the company is without faults, as it has many. It might not even be the future of retail crypto access, and perhaps it shouldn’t.

Also read: Zimbabwe Bans All Cryptocurrency Activity, Businesses Have 2 Month Grace Period

Coinbase is Easy, Light, Feisty

“Today is Coinbase’s sixth anniversary,” wrote COO Asiff Hirji. “We’re celebrating six incredible years working toward our mission to help create a more open financial system for the world! […] We are in the early days of our mission and there is still so much to do […] Have to know when to follow the rules, when to bend them and when to push to change them. Breaking them is neither ethical nor sustainable.”

It’s probably less of an exchange proper and more of a conservative cryptocurrency bank. It might be fair to simply label it a broker (without bids, asks, limit orders, margin trading, etc). Coinbase, founded six years ago this week, is arguably the most important company, regardless of its technical classification, within the space. It alone is responsible for introducing millions and millions of Americans to the wild phenomenon that is decentralized currency speculation.

Offering bitcoin core (BTC), bitcoin cash (BCH), ether (ETH), and litecoin (LTC), its sparse choices work to underwhelm those new to speculating on cryptocurrency. The format is light and only requires a linked bank account. Without the bother of having to hold and maintain decentralized currency, users can simply use the Coinbase client and trade for fractions, sometimes as low as $2.00. Fees, of course, apply.

At the time of available statistics, the Northern California broker had something like 13 million users (Altana Digital Currency Fund), some days back in 2017 clocking them at 100,000 new sign ups every twenty four hours. For a little while there, Coinbase was a top ten downloaded application in the Apple Store. Its yearly revenue eclipsed venerable legacy houses such as Charles Schwab.

Embarrassment of Riches

It continues to nab top professional financial sector talent such as Asiff Hirji from TD Ameritrade; to that end, it poached Facebook Messenger’s David Marcus to join its Board, and the two are exploring ways to exploit the social media platform’s giant user base in terms of blockchain technology (probably a proprietary token is in the works, but that’s a guess). Heck, even its alumni go on to do big things: Charlie Lee of Litecoin fame was a former director of engineering.

Merchants Dell and Expedia use it as a point of sale processor. For trading professionals, its Coinbase Exchange was rebranded to Global Digital Asset Exchange (GDAX), becoming one of the earliest to offer ether to financial pros.

For better or worse, Coinbase is the most prominent version of mainstreaming the crypto revolution. It’s young (CEO, Brian Armstrong, is barely in his mid 30s), feisty, ambitious, cocky, and sporting for market share. Its flounders are largely an embarrassment of riches: demand so great the company’s system crashed a few times during the runups of 2017, and its customer inquiries languished at times in ten day backlogs. Mr. Armstrong fired back, “There’s so many people rushing into the space, if it’s a bit of speculation, I’m O.K. with that. But we can’t guarantee the website’s going to be up exactly when you need it. Everyone needs to take a deep breath.”

That particular hiccup hasn’t been put away altogether just yet, as in January of this year alone formal complaints to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rocketed by more than 100%. Almost half were filed regarding “money not available when promised,” which is no small matter.

Perils of Centralization

In the scaling debate, Mr. Armstrong came firmly down on the side of big blockers, and, according to various sources, holds most of his crypto wealth in ether. Under his leadership, the company embraced economic reality, choosing when to fight on principle and where to give-in. For example, it was one of the notable in its class to snag a controversial Bitlicense from New York. Howls of sell out and capitulation could be heard far and wide. But this move signaled to potential investors and the broader financial community the company was less strident and more pragmatic in the all-important ‘business sense.’

It would regain some of its punkier credibility, at least for a time, when the United States’ taxman came calling. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) evidently can read eye-popping price headlines. As market leaders such as BTC rose exponentially, so did United States citizens’ tax obligations. Yet nearly no one was complying. History will show the company did fight back, but history will also show it lost, having to hand over customer information for those who moved more than $20K in crypto (small percentage of its users).

Then again, when New York’s top cop poked and prodded at exchanges, asking they account for this and that, Coinbase jumped as high as asked, issuing a very detailed letter. Kraken, on the other hand, went sideways at the presumption and hubris of such an invasion. The contrast could not be starker, and the more principled in the community noticed … as it did when it shut off access for Wikileaks, a seemingly purposeful separation from crypto’s anarchic roots. Such are the perils of centralization in the sense there are doors to kickdown, masters to please other than market demand.

For the more cypherpunk among us, it is critical to acknowledge the truth. Coinbase is good people, but Coinbase is also in bed with the same folks who prompted crypto’s birth. That won’t do, and won’t do by a lot. If censorship resistance and decentralization are fundamental pillars, then we should look for exchanges in those images. Leave traditional banking schemes itching to please governments to their future: slow death.

Is Coinbase an overall positive or negative in the crypto community? Tell us in the comments below!

Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Coinbase, Twitter.

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