Who Accepts Bitcoin 2019

Introduction

Bitcoin is a digital currency that operates independently of a third party. Bitcoin is a new kind of money that allows you to control your funds and spend them without having to trust anyone else.

When Bitcoin first launched in 2009, Bitcoin payments were not accepted anywhere because it was worthless. In the early days of Bitcoin, there wasn’t even anywhere you could go to buy or sell Bitcoin until the first Bitcoin exchange BitcoinMarket.com launched. If you had asked “where can I use Bitcoin” or “what can I buy with Bitcoin” back then the answers would have been nowhere and nothing. The first Bitcoin transaction didn’t occur until May 2010 – Laszlo Hanyecz’s now-infamous Bitcoin pizza transaction – where he bought two pizzas for a 10,000 BTC payment.

When you consider Bitcoin’s humble beginnings ten years ago, it’s remarkable it has come as far as it has in such a short space of time. Although Bitcoin is not universally accepted and has not dislodged the dollar as the global reserve currency, it is probably much more widely accepted than you might think. In this article, we will look at the ways Bitcoin can be used online and some of the many places you can now use Bitcoin to show that Bitcoin is a lot closer to adoption than is generally perceived.

What Can You Use Bitcoin For Online?

Bitcoin is a native Internet currency, which makes it much easier to use online than offline. There are lots of different ways you can use Bitcoin online besides just shopping.

Bitcoin can be used for tipping, gifts to charity, gift cards, and gambling. As well as paying with Bitcoin through regular online checkouts, you can even pay with Bitcoin by scanning QR codes. Bitcoin stores value pretty well over time (or it has done to date), so that is also one of its primary uses.

How To Pay Using Bitcoin

If you are wondering how do you use Bitcoin when shopping online, the answer is it depends. Using Bitcoin is reasonably straightforward on most websites that accept it (providing you already know the basics of how Bitcoin works). If you are on a site that accepts Bitcoin, you need to select the Bitcoin/cryptocurrency option when making payment and follow the steps as explained by the website.

It is worth noting that most websites will have a help page about Bitcoin if they do accept it, to help reduce the number of users getting confused or making mistakes while trying to pay with Bitcoin. If you can’t figure out how to pay with Bitcoin after doing a bit of digging, it may just be that the website you are using does not take Bitcoin. If you are still unsure, you can always use the contact page of the website for any problems/queries.

Where Can You Spend Bitcoin?

The number of people interested in Bitcoin and using it for payments (Bitcoin shopping) has surged in the last few years. To give an idea of the range and level of interest from ‘noncoiners,’ here are twenty Bitcoin-related searches people have recently typed:

Where to buy Bitcoin stock
What can I do with Bitcoin
How to spend Bitcoins
Places that accept Bitcoin near me
What can u buy with Bitcoin
What can I use Bitcoin for
What can you do with Bitcoins
How do I use Bitcoin
Where can I pay with Bitcoin
Who accepts Bitcoin as payment
How do you spend Bitcoins
Who uses Bitcoin
Bitcoin online store
Bitcoin store
What to do with Bitcoins
How do you pay with Bitcoin
What can you purchase with Bitcoin
The Bitcoin store
Bitcoin accepted here
We accept Bitcoin

As shown in the above list, a lot of the searches seem to be being done by people who know very little about Bitcoin at all but are still interested in using it, rather than by people who are just unsure of where to spend Bitcoins they already own.

Bitcoin can be used as a payment method in a lot more places than people realize. So if you are interested in shopping with Bitcoin but don’t know what companies accept Bitcoin or what to buy with Bitcoin then look no further.

We will now list some of the places you can spend Bitcoin, as well as go into depth for some of the better-known companies that accept Bitcoin payments.

List of Bitcoin Shops; Stores that Accept Bitcoin

Where can you use Bitcoin? What retailers accept Bitcoin? Here is a list of places that accept Bitcoin. The below list of websites that accept Bitcoins is by no means comprehensive but gives a good overview of just how much more widespread Bitcoin usage and acceptance is than people realize:

32Red Sport
4Chan.org
AMC Theaters
American Bullion
Archive.org
Bet365
BetChain
Bloomberg.com
Braintree
Brewdog
CheapAir.com
eToro
Etsy.com
Euro Pacific
Expedia.com
ExpressVPN
EZTV
Fancy.com
Fiverr
Golden Gate Casino
Grooveshark
Gyft
Internet Archive
Intuit
Lionsgate films
LiveJasmin
Lumfiles
Mega.co.nz
Mint.com
Namecheap.com
Naughty America
Nostrum
OkCupid
Paypal
Playboy Plus
PlayStation Network
PornHub
Post Oak Motor Cars
Rakuten
Red Cross
Reddit
Save the Children
Seoclerks.com
Stripe
Subway
The Pirate Bay
The Water Project
Virgin Galactic
WatchShopping.com
Wikipedia
William Hill
WordPress.com
Zynga.com

So the next time someone suggests Bitcoin is not a currency by asking “where can I spend Bitcoin” or “what companies take Bitcoin” you will be able to give over 50 well-known vendors who accept Bitcoin.

It is worth noting that although there may be some crossover in the above list if you want to know who accepts Ethereum as payment, this is likely to be a much smaller list than the above list of stores that take Bitcoin. The same applies if you want to know who accepts Litecoin as payment, although there is a list further down in the article.

Where is Bitcoin Accepted Near Me?

Who accepts Bitcoin near me? What merchants accept Bitcoin in my area? Some local places you wouldn’t even think of might already be accepting Bitcoin. If you want to know what stores accept Bitcoin, try asking. Asking to pay by Bitcoin with local businesses could help lead to them becoming Bitcoin merchants in the future.

The more businesses think their customers are interested in Bitcoin and potentially using it for payments, the more likely they are to consider accepting it. So the more you ask to pay by Bitcoin, the more you will be helping drive its adoption in your local area.

Major Retailers and Companies That Use Bitcoin

Now that we have established you can use Bitcoin for online payments; we will cover some of the larger online stores that accept Bitcoin in more detail.

Overstock.com

Overstock.com is an American e-commerce retailer that sells surplus and returned stock (mainly furniture and decorations) at discounted prices. Furniture is probably one of the best things you can buy with Bitcoin because it is usually an expensive item, so transaction fees are less significant.

Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne has long been a believer in Bitcoin and cryptocurrency. Overstock Bitcoin acceptance first began in 2014, making Overstock the first major retailer to start allowing users to buy stuff with Bitcoin. As well as being one of the first places that take Bitcoin, Overstock now accepts over 40 different cryptocurrencies including Ethereum, Dash, Litecoin, and Monero.

The below quote from the Blockchain page of the Overstock website shows just how much of a believer Byrne is in Bitcoin and Blockchain.

“You want money to be based on something that no government mandarin can wish into existence with the stroke of a pen.” – Patrick Byrne

Patrick Byrne is such a big believer in the future of Blockchain that last year he announced plans to sell the retail portion of the business entirely and pivot to just being a Blockchain company going forwards, however as the profitability of the retail part of the business has improved considerably since then, Byrne has suggested the sale may not actually go ahead.

eGifter

If you are looking for things to buy with Bitcoin, gift cards are a great way of increasing the number of items you can buy. eGifter.com is a website which allows people to purchase gift cards for major retailers including but not limited to:

Amazon (good news for anyone wondering “does Amazon accept Bitcoin,” as covered below)
Walmart
Wayfair
iTunes
Uber
Dominos
Adidas
GameStop
Home Depot

eGifter first started accepting Bitcoin in 2013 when it partnered with Coinbase and enabled users to integrate their Coinbase accounts with the eGifter website and app. eGifter has since expanded the cryptocurrencies they accept and now also accept Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Dash. eGifter do not charge any additional fees for cryptocurrency purchases.

A lot of people wanting to spend their Bitcoin ask things like “can you use Bitcoin on Amazon?” or “does Walmart accept Bitcoin?” or “are Home Depot Bitcoin purchases possible?” without realising it is actually already possible to spend your cryptocurrency there regardless of whether Home Depot, Walmart or Amazon take Bitcoin directly.

Newegg

Newegg.com is a US retailer that sells consumer electronics (TVs, laptops, phones, tablets, etc.). Does Newegg accept Bitcoin? Newegg Bitcoin acceptance first started in 2014 to increase its appeal to its more technically knowledgable customers who were asking how to buy stuff with Bitcoin. Newegg recently expanded the option of paying with cryptocurrency to 73 additional countries, and now accepts Bitcoin worldwide.

Newegg enabled cryptocurrency purchase through BitPay. BitPay can be installed onto websites to allow customers to make purchases with Bitcoin or Bitcoin Cash, while the site still receives their payment in fiat currencies. BitPay charges a 1% fee for allowing users to enable cryptocurrency purchases without taking on any of the associated risks.

A similar type of company accepting Bitcoin is TigerDirect, who also sell consumer electronics. TigerDirect Bitcoin payments have been taken since 2014.

Shopify Stores

For those who have not (knowingly) encountered Shopify before, it is an online business in a box. Shopify enables users to create their online store very quickly, think of it as a WordPress for shops instead of blogs. Shopify describes itself as a “complete commerce platform that lets you start, grow, and manage a business.” The most well known Shopify store is probably Kylie Jenner’s make up website, Kylie Cosmetics.

Shopify users can start accepting Bitcoin by enabling one of the Bitcoin-related payment methods. The payment providers currently enabled by Shopify are BitPay, GoCoin, Coinbase Commerce, and CoinPayments. The cryptocurrencies accepted by a Shopify store depend on which provider is enabled. For example, BitPay only allows customers to pay via Bitcoin or Bitcoin Cash, whereas CoinPayments allows users to accept coins from a virtual currency list of over 1,400 cryptocurrencies.

If however, you are a customer of a Shopify website there is no way of knowing whether or not they are Bitcoin retailers without trying to purchase something or checking their website, as it is entirely at the shop owners discretion.

Dish

Dish is a US cable company that had 9.9 million subscribers at the end of 2018. Dish is probably not one of the companies you expected to find on a list of what websites accept Bitcoin. Dish first began accepting Bitcoin as a payment option in 2014 when it partnered with Coinbase. In 2018 Dish became one of the companies that take Bitcoin Cash too.

Roadway Moving Company

Roadway Moving Company is one of the most popular movers in New York and one of the few Bitcoin vendors in the state. Although they may not be one of the most well-known merchants that accept Bitcoin, Roadway Moving Company made news in 2017 when they became the first moving company to start accepting Bitcoin as a payment method.

Microsoft

Microsoft probably does not need an introduction, but just in case they are the global technology company founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen. Microsoft is the company behind Windows, Microsoft Office, Xbox and Internet Explorer, to name just a few of their brands. It may not be a surprise Microsoft accepts Bitcoin given Bill Gates’ below quote showing he is someone who takes Bitcoin seriously:

“Bitcoin is a technological tour de force.” – Bill Gates

Microsoft allows Bitcoin as a payment option when topping up Microsoft accounts. The Microsoft accounts can then be used to make purchases in the Windows and Xbox stores. Of the major retailers that accept Bitcoin, Microsoft was an early adopter and first began accepting Bitcoin as a payment method in 2014. Microsoft stopped accepting Bitcoin briefly in 2018 due to concerns over volatility. However, Bitcoin has since been re-enabled as a Microsoft payment method. So Microsoft is once again one of the businesses that accept Bitcoin.

Subway

Does Subway accept Bitcoin? Not technically, but as Subway is a franchise, franchisees do have discretion over whether or not Subway Bitcoin payments are allowed. As a consequence Subway accepts Bitcoin in a few of its locations.

The first Subway to start accepting Bitcoin as payment was the Allentown, Pennslyvania franchise in 2013. It’s likely the number of franchises accepting Bitcoin has grown since 2013, although by how many in a company the size of Subway is unknown.

Amazon

Plenty of people search for things like “can I use Bitcoin on Amazon.” So does Amazon take Bitcoin? Unfortunately, it is not yet possible to use Bitcoin on Amazon. So when will Amazon accept Bitcoin? According to an anonymous software engineer, Amazon has held numerous meetings about accepting Bitcoin as payment, but the sessions have never progressed further due to concerns over returns and refunds. So if you want to buy with Bitcoin Amazon probably isn’t the place for you yet.

Although you may still have a while to wait for Amazon to accept Bitcoin, it likely you will see some movement from Amazon in the blockchain space at some point. Amazon has recently purchased three blockchain domain names, filed a blockchain patent, and Amazon Web Services is already offering blockchain solutions to clients.

PayPal

You might not expect PayPal to appear on the list when looking at what businesses accept Bitcoin. So how does PayPal accept Bitcoin? PayPal accepts Bitcoin indirectly, as it allows its merchants to accept Bitcoin as a payment option.

Who Accepts Litecoin 2019

Although this article is primarily about what stores take Bitcoin and what places accept Bitcoin, we also have a list of merchants that take Litecoin:

Sean’s Outpost
Ellenet
Cryptopet.com
Allthingsluxury.biz
Cheapair.com
Btctrip
Re/Max
eGifter
Overstock.com
Uber

Conclusion – What Can you Buy with Bitcoin 2019

So can we use Bitcoin in 2019? Given everything covered above the answer has to be yes. Can you live the rest of your life only using Bitcoin? We are probably not at that stage yet, although there are various experiments people have done with living on Bitcoin.

Now we have looked at online retailers that accept Bitcoin, how to buy things with Bitcoin and where to use Bitcoin hopefully we have proven some of your misconceptions about not being able to use Bitcoin as a means of exchange wrong.

If you are enthusiastic about Bitcoin and cryptocurrency and you want to do your bit to help drive adoption, there is a straightforward way to do so, use it. Buy your friends gift cards purchased with Bitcoin, use the Bitcoin option next time you see it is available on the website you are using, ask local stores if they take Bitcoin. The more people use Bitcoin and help other people to use it, and the more widely available Bitcoin will be.

Author Profile

Fat Finger

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