8 months ago I read a book called Digital Gold, which was all about Bitcoin, it's implications, and development. The book was written by the NY Times writer who had covered the technology. It was a great read. I was surprised that a book about digital money could be interesting, but it was a well told story.

I'm not a Bitcoin investor, I guess I don't have the stomach for risk. Maybe that is why I make safety equipment? I did learn that some of the things that people like about Bitcoin are also some of the things some of our customers like. So we started offering the ability to buy a bulletproof vest using Bitcoin.

We used a combination of Shopify, Bitpay, and Orderhive to handle the transaction. BulletSafe's website's backend is provided by Shopify. Shopify offers a way for companies like ours to build a fairly nice web store efficiently. They also offer support for all sorts of cool things, like our Dealer Locator which is a plug-in app that we really like. Shopify also offers Bitpay integration, so we used Bitpay to accept the Bitcoin transaction. We also use an inventory/order management system called Orderhive to handle the shipment in our warehouse. So the order was shipped quickly and easily. Once set up it was as easy as accepting a credit card order.

It is nice to see people using Bitcoin as an actual way to buy things. It seems that most of what I have read lately about Bitcoin was written about people just buying and selling the currency itself and not really using it for its intended purpose.

So, while accepting Bitcoin hasn't been a big sales success for us. It does work. Perhaps despite the ups and downs the value of each Bitcoin carries, It is still a great way to complete a transaction.

Tom Nardone

President, BulletSafe Bulletproof Vests