Despite the recent excitement regarding PayPal’s big announcement that its merchants would be able to accept Bitcoin payments, the overall scheme still does not cover many types of purchases.
Brawker (founded in 2013), however, is looking to expand the playing field for Bitcoin by becoming the first online marketplace that allows users to quite literally buy anything online. Customers also have the option to use a credit/debit card or PayPal as well.
Brawker is pretty simple to use. Basically if you want to pay for something in BTC you will go to Brawker and find someone who will pay the bill or make the purchase for you with a credit card. You will then transfer the amount to them in Bitcoin. Bobby CE Ong, co-founder of CoinGecko is excited about the idea, who explained the idea to Cointelegraph:
“For me, my point of view of the usefulness of this service (Brawker) lies mainly with developing countries where there are no major Bitcoin exchanges”
Ong is indeed correct as there are still many countries where buying Bitcoin locally can be a real challenge or even forbidden.
But we are beginning to become more and more accustomed to people using Bitcoin to make purchases and yesterday someone made history yet again, by performing the first ever transaction to go across the Blockchain to pay off a parking ticking in Bitcoin.
Not only was this person able to pay the ticket but due to Brawker’s 10% discount, he actually saved money on the transaction.
Brawker is no stranger to crypto news. Recently CEO Cyril Houri grew weary of Jeffrey Robinson’s constant attacks on the Bitcoin community with his claims that Bitcoin had no real buying power.
He wrote a book entitled “The naked truth about Bitcoin” and bragged that even his book could not be purchased with Bitcoin. Houri disagreed, however, and went to Brawker and purchased the book with Bitcoin. The story was originally reported in Cryptocoinsnews. Houri later said:
“People can spend their Bitcoin on anything available online with Brawker, and they have. From parking tickets to electric and other utility bills, our customers are buying all kinds of things with Bitcoin, and getting a discount on their purchases in the process. We’re excited to give Bitcoin buyers an opportunity to get a great deal, too.”
Bitcoin spenders create their orders and specify the discount that they are seeking, which ranges from 0%-20%, which favors the spender on the current exchange rate between Bitcoin and the fiat currency being used. There is also a counter-offer feature that allows both buyer and seller to negotiate the exchange rate discount.
For more information on how to use the service, go here.
Disclaimer: Any of the companies mentioned in the above article should not be viewed as an endorsement. Please do your own extensive research prior to investing your funds into any of these entities.
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