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Overstock Becomes First Major US Company to Pay Taxes in BTC

Overstock becomes first major us company to pay taxes in btc

Overstock Becomes First Major US Company to Pay Taxes in BTC

Internet retailer Overstock has announced that it intends to become the very first major US-based company to pay a part of its state business tax in Ohio using BTC. 

Taxes With BTC

According to its own investor portal, US-based internet retailer Overstock is set to pay part of its Ohio state business tax using BTC. Supposedly, by doing so, the retailer will become the first major US company to pay its taxes using the digital currency.

Overstock becomes first major us company to pay taxes in btc

Speaking on the matter was Patrick M. Byrne, Overstock CEO and founder, who noted:

We have long thought that thoughtful governmental adoption of emerging technologies such as cryptocurrencies (when accompanied by non-restrictive legislation over these technologies) is the best way to ensure the U.S. does not lose our place at the forefront of the ever-advancing global economy. […] We are proud to partner with forward-thinking governments and officials like Ohio and Treasurer Mandel to help usher in an era of trust through technology for our nation’s essential financial systems.

Earlier in November, Bitcoinist reported that Overstock’s share price soared as the company announced plans to sell its retail-oriented business and to focus on previously acquired blockchain startups.

‘Ahead of Its Time’

Paying taxes with BTC in Ohio became possible in late November 2018 at OhioCrypto.com.

According to State Treasurer John Mandel, who pioneered the idea, Overstock’s move to pay its taxes with the cryptocurrency is ‘ahead of its time’:

We applaud Overstock for becoming the first national brand in America to register to pay taxes via cryptocurrency. Their embrace of blockchain technology was ahead of its time and we’re proud to have them join OhioCrypto.com.

In an interview for Fortune, Mandel also added that paying taxes with BTC reveals certain financial advantages. According to him, taxpayers who use credit cards pay 2.5 percent service fees, while those who use BTC will only incur a fee of 1 percent. Early filers like Overstock, however, won’t incur any fees at all.

What do you think of Overstock paying part of its state business tax in Ohio using BTC? Don’t hesitate to let us know in the comments below!

Images courtesy of Shutterstock

Published at Fri, 04 Jan 2019 11:00:22 +0000

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Bitcoin Lightning Network Is Coming: Test a Transaction Now

Although bitcoin has managed to gain credibility and legitimacy in the financial world, skyrocketing transaction fees and long transaction times are becoming an increasingly severe handicap. The good news is that developers are making progress towards the bitcoin Lightning Network (LN) implementation. LN promises to reduce bitcoin’s transaction fees dramatically, and achieve near-instant transactions. You can test a bitcoin LN transaction right now.

Lightning Network Promises to Reduce Transaction Costs and Confirmation Delays

bitcoin users are unhappy about the high costs of transaction fees. bitcoin average transaction fees have spectacularly surged from about $0.69 USD in January 2017, to over $28 USD on December 18, as shown in the chart below. BitInfoCharts provide this chart.

Lightning Network Promises to Reduce Transaction Costs and Confirmation Delays

Moreover, the bitcoin network traffic has become clogged due to the rising demand for transactions per block. As a result, confirming bitcoin transactions is taking an extremely long time. Bitpay explains:

Block sizes are limited, so this means that transactions which exceed the capacity for a block get stuck in a queue for confirmation by bitcoin miners. This queue of unconfirmed transactions is called the bitcoin mempool.

Now, bitcoin enthusiasts and cryptocurrency experts are centering their hopes on the LN approach to reduce transactions fees and long time-delays.

Solving bitcoin Scalability Problem

Solving Bitcoin Scalability Problem

The bitcoin Lightning Network is essentially a decentralized system where users can set up trustless micropayment channels to conduct one or multiple payment transactions off-blockchain.

These channels reside outside the bitcoin blockchain. However, once the payment channel is closed, the transactions that occurred between the channels are then broadcast, as a single transaction, to the main blockchain network. Thus, no matter the number of micro-transactions conducted, the blockchain is accessed only twice, when the channel is opened and when the channel is closed. Obviously, this approach would significantly reduce the load on the blockchain.

Presently, three teams are independently working on the LN implementation: ACINQ, Blockstream, and Lightning Labs. In early December 2017, they announced that their respective systems had completed payment tests on the main bitcoin network. Moreover, these tests achieved interoperability across all three implantations.

Right now, to educate potential LN users, the website https://htlc.me/ allows you try a testnet bitcoin LN transaction. Reddit user Nabugu provides the details of the test here.

As demand for bitcoin continues to grow, transaction costs and time delays are bound to get worse. However, many bitcoin enthusiasts and experts are excited about LN. For example, Ryan Radloff, co-founder, and principal at CoinShares, explicitly told CNBC that LN was the solution, adding:

[LN] is a technological implementation that, later this year, is going to solve this [problem], and we’re very excited about that.

What do you think would be the impact on the cryptocurrency ecosystem when bitcoin Lightning Network starts allowing users to make cheap micropayments at near-instant speed? Let us know in the comments below.

Images courtesy of AdobeStock, ACINQ, BitInfoCharts

The post Bitcoin Lightning Network Is Coming: Test a Transaction Now appeared first on Bitcoinist.com.

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