A Guy Who Owns A Bitcoin-Only Electronics Store Is Revealing Everything On Reddit
Reddit user "Leeburg" has written a post on his nine months and counting of experience in running a Bitcoin-only storefront online. The site is called CoinsForTech, and it deals in smartphones, computers, and all order of electronic gadgets wanted by people all over the world.
Leeburg is able to serve these people due to the geographically agnostic Bitcoin. Rather than get a bank involved in converting obscure currencies, CoinsForTech simply waits for confirmation that a customer's payment has arrived at the appropriate Bitcoin wallet. At that point, it can convert to U.S. dollars or do whatever else it would like with the Bitcoins - the payment's arrived and the irreversible nature of Bitcoin transactions means it's here to stay.
Here's a visual for just how international the site's reach is, which nine months' worth of orders denoted by Bitcoin logos over their destinations (you can view an interactive version here):
Other relevant details from Leeburg's post:
- Since launching nine months ago, CoinsForTech has sold $300,000 worth of merchandise to "nearly 40" countries, and if business remains steady, it will clear $500,000 before the end of its first year.
- Bitcoin enables the site to serve many countries that would normally be deemed high-risk markets. Leeburg writes that "customers in areas such as India, Israel, and Pakistan are some of our best. We could never ship to these countries using a system other than Bitcoin."
- The fact that Bitcoin transactions are irreversible means that the business has been defrauded "a total of zero times." Just as Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne recently told Business Insider, Bitcoin effectively makes customer fraud a thing of the past.
"If you are an international merchant you should be accepting Bitcoin. I cannot stress this enough," Leeburg writes. "Incredibly low start-up and ongoing costs, clear market from Bitcoiners wanting to spend, irreversible and instant payments worldwide - what have you got to lose?"