Overstock Board Member Says Cryptos Are Better Than Credit Cards

Salt Lake City-based online retailer Overstock generates revenue of between $68,000 and $120,000 per week in cryptocurrency. Jonathan Johnson, who sits on the Board of directors of the billion dollar company, has stated that cryptocurrencies are a much better payment option than credit cards.

Credit card transactions are reversible. This increases the level of risk to merchants as there is always a possibility of a refund request and payment cancellation.

So, a merchant has to take adequate precautions while dealing with credit card payments. Cryptocurrencies clearly have an edge there. However, there were a lot of concerns over exorbitant charges while using Bitcoin in December. The advent of Segwit technology has resulted in a rapid decline in fees.

In late April, a single tranche of $99 million worth Litecoin was transferred for a fee of $0.40. Such cheap and efficient transactions continue to make cryptocurrencies popular among ordinary people and business houses.

Commenting on cryptocurrencies, Johnson stated

“We pay a processing fee for credit cards, and we employ about 40 people in our fraud department. That’s a cost of doing business with credit cards. When we take cryptocurrency, we have a very small transaction fee with Coinbase, much smaller than our credit card processing fee, and we have no fraud prevention department. It’s like a cash transaction. For us, that is a much cheaper way of doing business.”

Johnson further stated that the actual amount moved by Overstock on a weekly basis is slightly different because of the market volatility. The Director also believes that the crypto market has changed the manner in which investors participate and invest.

Johnson said

“Today, so many of us can’t participate in the capital markets the way accredited investors or well-connected investors can. And those of use that are trying to raise money have a hard time crowdfunding or raising money in a democratized way.”