Customers can easily catch a ride or book a comfortable stay with Uber and Airbnb. Payment for those services could become easier, too, with Bitcoin.
Ebay's mobile payments division, run by Braintree, will begin processing payments in Bitcoin in the coming months, according to The Wall Street Journal. Braintree CEO Bill Ready made the announcement at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco on Sept. 8.
Braintree processes payments for a number of startup companies including the popular Uber, Airbnb, StubHub and LivingSocial. The recent deal with Ebay could extend to these smaller companies so they could also accept Bitcoin payments.
Braintree will accept payments through Coinbase, a digital wallet system for Bitcoin.
Ebay will become the biggest e-commerce website to accept the virtual currency since Overstock.com started using it earlier this year, according to the WSJ. Overstock reported it would make $6 million to $8 million in sales using Bitcoin and Coinbase, and will average $1 million a month by the year's end.
Bitcoin could possibly make cash or credit cards obsolete in many transactions, although currently it is not an official currency. The company can also process transactions with almost no fees, unlike credit or debit cards, according to its website. No fees could lessen the cost for consumers, if Bitcoin is more widely adopted.
The value of Bitcoin can change dramatically over a short period, and the company does not recommend users to keep their savings with Bitcoin.
