Two of the country’s biggest names in e-commerce,
Overstock.com and TigerDirect.com, earned
themselves some press (and perhaps goodwill from the tech crowd) with their recent decisions to start
accepting Bitcoin as payment. Now, though, users of the controversial peer-to-peer digital system can spend their cryptocurrency in
brick and mortar stores including Home Depot, CVS,
Kmart and Sears as well as online at web retail
granddaddy Amazon.com. eGifter.com allows shoppers to pay for any of their 150+ digital gift cards in Bitcoin straight from the checkout line at national retail chains using their
mobile app for iOS or Android. eGifter uses Bitcoin
wallet Coinbase to process transactions, ensuring
they’re secure. “I’ve seen purchases come in for exact amounts like
$124.68, so I know folks are paying using Bitcoin
physically in-store,” said eGifter CEO Tyler Roye.
“That’s the advantage, and a real opportunity with
digital gift cards: you don’t have to buy more than
you need, down to the penny.” Roye sees accepting alternative payment methods
like Bitcoin as a no-brainer given the crowd of early
adopters buying and trading it. Until chains like the Gap, GameStop and JC
Penney start accepting the cryptocurrency through
their own point of sales systems, eGifter.com acts
as a workaround. “Bitcoin users don’t have as many places to spend
as they might like, and many of them have made quite a bit of money in the past year,” he said, adding that the demographic likely to embrace peer-
to-peer payment systems probably has a fair
amount of disposable income to begin with. “These big retailers will have to accept Bitcoin over
time, but it’s going to be a process years in the
making,” he said. “Therein lies the opportunity for
folks like us.”
