



What’s the easiest way to get bitcoins into your wallet? Answer: Get paid in bitcoin. BitPay, the world’s largest digital currency payment processor, now lets employees do that with the beta release of its Bitcoin Payroll API for employers.



“For the longest time the hard question was ‘How do I buy bitcoin?’” said Tony Gallippi, co-founder and CEO of BitPay.



“Now the answer is easy: ‘Ask your employer.’”



American W-2 employees (see below) can elect to have all, or part, of their salary paid in bitcoin for every pay period. It works as a ‘net payroll deduction’, meaning taxes and garnishes are removed from an employee’s gross income first, and the bitcoin portion is deducted from take-home pay.











What About The IRS?



This system works better for employees worried about how they might be affected by tax issues.



“Since all payroll and withholding taxes are taken out first from the employee’s gross income, bitcoins can be sent from the net pay tax-free, and the employer’s gross income reporting to the IRS remains unchanged,” said Bryan Kohn, BitPay’s CFO.



For now, the beta release is open to employers in Georgia or South Carolina, and other licensed payroll providers nationwide in the US.



In case you were wondering, yes, all 20 BitPay staff receive at least a portion of their salaries in bitcoin. Four of them, including CEO Tony Gallippi, receive 100% of their net pay in bitcoin.



It was after receiving requests from its own employees that BitPay decided to develop the API for others to use as well. The company has already used the system itself for over six months, and discovered workers at other companies were interested too.



“We had enough requests to make the effort of creating the API worthwhile,” said Stephanie Wargo, BitPay’s VP of Marketing.



20,000 Bitcoin Merchants



BitPay is still the most popular bitcoin payment processor in the world, removing price volatility risk for curious-but-nervous merchants by converting their bitcoin income instantly into local currencies. Adding new merchants at a rate of 1,000 per week, the company also announced it now had over 20,000 bitcoin accepting businesses as clients. It is also the headline sponsor of the North American Bitcoin Conference in Miami, Florida, from 24th-26th January.



In the US, a W-2 employee is a type of independent contractor, working for an employment contracting company. W-2 employees also have income tax, social security and medicare withheld, while employers must pay 50% of those and have workmen’s compensation coverage. They are also eligible for unemployment compensation.









Fixing Double Spending: Why Bitcoin is Revolutionary









There are many reasons to be excited about bitcoin: it could enable totally new business and technology models ; it resembles the Internet in the early ‘90s in the sense that it is a network that no one owns and everyone can contribute to; it could revolutionize legal concepts of ownership; it could disrupt the payments industry; and it could even become a huge tax haven. It could also flop.



Excess Electronic Transaction Fees



The double spending problem is the risk that a person could pay for two different things with the same unit of currency. This problem really only arises if you want to make a purchase electronically (ie with something other than cash).



Say I make T-shirts and you want to buy one. In the offline world, we could transact with cash. You give me a $20 bill, and I give you a T-shirt. As I’m now in physical possession of the $20 bill, I can be certain that you won’t spend it on something else. My only risk is that you’re a professional counterfeiter, but that’s pretty unlikely.



Credit Card Transaction



Now, say you want to buy one of the T-shirts from my online e-store. As it happens, my shop is overseas. Wouldn’t it be cool if we could replicate the offline experience by you simply sending me a digital version of a $20 bill?



Until recently you couldn’t because you needed at least one financial institution involved and either you or I (or both of us) had to pay them a fee to facilitate things. A credit card payment is a good example. You would give me your card details and, in order to process it, I would involve the credit card provider, a merchant services company and my bank.



We needed the financial institutions because, unlike physical bills, digital information is super easy to copy. If you try to send me a unit of digital money directly, how can I know that it is real – or that you haven’t sent the same thing to someone else?



To be certain, I’d need to access your bank account to check that your balance actually decreased. And there’s no way you’d give access to your bank account to someone selling you a T-shirt!



“$140bn in transaction fees is a big pie, and bitcoin has the potential to take a large slice.”



The role financial institutions play here is to serve as a trusted third party to identify you and me, to ensure that the money is only spent once and to process the payment. In order to retain their trusted status, financial institutions also become involved if there is a dispute between us.



This takes time and resources, for which financial institutions charge fees. In the example of the T-shirt sale, I (the merchant) would incur a cost of 0.5 to 2.5% to process the credit card.



You (the purchaser) would probably be charged a currency conversion fee by your credit card provider (who would no doubt make additional money by giving you a crappy exchange rate).



These fees and charges add up. Some smart management consultants I used to work with estimated that transaction-specific fees amounted to nearly $140bn in 2012.



Bitcoin’s fundamental innovation is to remove the need for a third party to be involved in the transaction. It allows you to securely and anonymously transfer money to anyone anywhere in the world.



Going back to the T-shirt example, if you had paid me in bitcoin, I would have paid much much less than the 2.5% it cost me to process your credit card. And you would have paid no currency conversion fee whatsoever.









Bitcoin’s Approach To The Problem





I can sense your skepticism. How does bitcoin cut out the financial middlemen?





Bitcoin is a “ purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash ”. It allows you to securely send money directly to me. The bitcoin network is decentralised, which means there is no central financial body overseeing things.





That sounds bad, right? Well, actually no – bitcoin’s inventor developed a clever mechanism to ensure that bitcoins couldn’t be copied and spent more than once.





Each bitcoin has a history attached to it – essentially a log of digital signatures showing the transactions it has been involved in. In bitcoin-speak, these logs are called “blocks” and, when you put them all together, they form the “block chain.” The block chain contains a record of all the transactions ever made using bitcoin.





But what if someone alters a block? Couldn’t they “erase” a transaction and spend a coin twice?





Computer Network





The nifty thing about bitcoin is that the block chain is publicly available. Anyone on the Internet can see it (don’t worry – the names of the parties to specific transactions remain hidden).





There is a huge amount of computer power that goes into recording transactions and verifying the block chain. This is what all the computers mining bitcoins around the world are doing and it’s why bitcoin transactions take an average of 10 minutes to complete (to incentivise miners to undertake this work, they can “earn” bitcoins along the way – but mining is a story for another post).





If someone alters a block, all the other computers on the bitcoin network “vote” to reject that alteration.





In short, in order to hack the system and spend a coin twice, you’d need more computer power than everyone else on the whole bitcoin network combined. And that’s virtually impossible nowadays.





Buy Online With Bitcoin?





At this very moment you can (just like I do everyday) buy stuff using services like Bitpay, Coinbase, Snapcard, Gyft and E-Gift and they will either let you purchase directly from most any website or allow you to use giftcards (you transfer Bitcoins onto giftcards and they do the exchange into dollars automatically). Then you go shopping.





Also, services like Bitpay and Coinbase will instantly nullify the effects of volatility by locking in the rates when you do the transaction. It's all taken care of for you.





So you really have access to thousands of online merchants right now!





In the long term, the ability to securely transfer money on a peer-to-peer basis could be hugely disruptive.





I’m not saying bitcoin will completely replace other methods of transacting money. It won’t. But $140bn in transaction fees is a big pie, and bitcoin has the potential to take a large slice.





What’s more, there are many other pies out there. I’ll discuss some of those another time, but as an example just consider the potential impact on the $550bn remittance market









Sacramento Kings Become First NBA Team to Accept Bitcoin









The Sacramento Kings NBA franchise has officially announced plans to accept bitcoin for products including tickets, jerseys, hot dogs and beer, beginning 1st March. The team says it will accept the currency online and at the Sleep Train Arena, its home stadium.





Georgia-based payment service provider BitPay revealed that it will process the team’s transactions, adding to its network of 10,000+ bitcoin-accepting merchants. Vivek Ranadivé, owner of the Sacramento Kings , said:





“We are maniacally focused on creating the most seamless experience for our fans in all facets. With BitPay, we are able to implement a technology that allows our fans to make Kings-related purchases without physically reaching into their wallets.”





This statement was echoed by Tony Gallippi, BitPay’s co-founder and CEO, who said: “The Kings marketing team came to CES last week and were very curious about bitcoin.”





“For several years BitPay has been investing in events like CES to introduce people to the amazing technology that is bitcoin. We are thrilled that the Kings could implement bitcoin so quickly,” he added.





The announcement quickly reverberated through the financial world, with T he Wall Street Journal calling it “an important step in the virtual currency’s bid to achieve mainstream acceptance.”





Tipping Point





In an interview with the media outlet, Ranadivé, a native of Mumbai, India, was outspoken about his support for bitcoin and its ability to enable spending.





The 56-year-old CEO and founder of TIBCO Software said he expects other NBA franchises to follow his lead, and detailed how bitcoin acceptance is part of a larger plan that seeks to grow his team’s global fan base through the use of technology. Sacramento Kings coaches have recently begun to use Google Glass to observe games.





Ranadivé said the franchise does not plan to exchange the bitcoins it receives for fiat currency. Rather, he said he believes the currency’s recent volatility will eventually dissipate and that bitcoin transactions and trading will become more common with time.





Silicon Valley And Beyond





Sacramento, with its close proximity to bitcoin-friendly Silicon Valley, may be the right target area for such a test – as other markets may not be able to rely on a similarly large bitcoin customer base.





While the Kings are the first major US sports franchise to accept bitcoin, this isn’t the first time that the bitcoin and athletic worlds have crossed.





In December, one sports fan received $20,000 simply for waving a bitcoin sign on national cable network ESPN, demonstrating the spending power of bitcoin-supporting sports fans.





Additionally, other sports teams are experimenting more broadly with mobile payments at stadiums. MasterCard has hinted at plans to test in-stadium mobile payment apps, while the Atlanta Falcons partnered with NCR on a similar initiative back in September











San Jose Earthquake's Fans Can Pay For their Tickets With Bitcoin





The San Jose Earthquakes, a soccer club from California, is banking on the growing popularity of bitcoin in Silicon Valley as it prepares to launch bitcoin payments at its stadium box office, concession stands and gift store.





Bitcoin integration at the team’s Buck Shaw Stadium will take place on 25th May, in time for the Earthquakes’ match with Houston Dynamo. Coinbase is acting as the stadium’s bitcoin payments processor, leveraging the exchange’s tablet app to accept payments.





Team President Dave Kaval told CoinDesk that the the organization became interested in bitcoin thanks to nearby Silicon Valley’s strong association with the digital currency, saying:





“We felt that, talking to a lot of our fans, especially in Silicon Valley, there were people who had inquired about whether or not we actually accepted bitcoin in the stadium. That kind of fed off inquiries on our side.”





Bitcoin Rollout





San Jose EarthquakesThe Earthquakes are planning on integrating bitcoin payments at a number of key areas at Buck Shaw Stadium. Game attendees can use bitcoin to buy tickets at the box office and additionally will be able to pay for concessions at certain locations and buy merchandise at the stadium gift shop.





Kaval said that while not every point-of-sale terminal will be ready to accept bitcoin on 25th May, he said that more support will be added soon after.





He noted that the Earthquakes team is expecting a strong turnout for bitcoin-using customers, saying that many people in the area are familiar with digital currencies and are looking for opportunity to spend their bitcoins:





“I think we’re gonna have more people than we think. I think it will attract a lot of new fans and people.”





Entertainment Role





Kaval suggested that, like credit cards, bitcoin could easily be integrated as an alternative payment method at sports arenas and and other entertainment centres, adding that it’s a matter of allowing the technology to catch on with consumers:





“If you think back to the ’80s or early ’90s, you would go to a lot of places and they wouldn’t accept credit cards. Especially concerts and things like that – it was all cash. So think about how far that’s come.”





Kaval went on to say that integrating bitcoin enables entertainment venues to tap into payment methods that are easiest for customers. Otherwise, venues run the risk of failing to capitalize on that nascent demand.





Other sports clubs have adopt bitcoin as a form of payment this year. In March, Polish soccer club GKS Katowice announced that fans could use bitcoin to pay for tickets and buy merchandise.





At the start of the year, the Sacramento Kings became the first NBA team to begin accepting bitcoin payments. The franchise later opened a bitcoin-only online store.





San Jose Earthquake's Fans Can Pay For their Tickets With Bitcoin





The San Jose Earthquakes, a soccer club from California, is banking on the growing popularity of bitcoin in Silicon Valley as it prepares to launch bitcoin payments at its stadium box office, concession stands and gift store.





Bitcoin integration at the team’s Buck Shaw Stadium will take place on 25th May, in time for the Earthquakes’ match with Houston Dynamo. Coinbase is acting as the stadium’s bitcoin payments processor, leveraging the exchange’s tablet app to accept payments.





Team President Dave Kaval told CoinDesk that the the organization became interested in bitcoin thanks to nearby Silicon Valley’s strong association with the digital currency, saying:





“We felt that, talking to a lot of our fans, especially in Silicon Valley, there were people who had inquired about whether or not we actually accepted bitcoin in the stadium. That kind of fed off inquiries on our side.”





Bitcoin Rollout





San Jose EarthquakesThe Earthquakes are planning on integrating bitcoin payments at a number of key areas at Buck Shaw Stadium. Game attendees can use bitcoin to buy tickets at the box office and additionally will be able to pay for concessions at certain locations and buy merchandise at the stadium gift shop.





Kaval said that while not every point-of-sale terminal will be ready to accept bitcoin on 25th May, he said that more support will be added soon after.





He noted that the Earthquakes team is expecting a strong turnout for bitcoin-using customers, saying that many people in the area are familiar with digital currencies and are looking for opportunity to spend their bitcoins:





“I think we’re gonna have more people than we think. I think it will attract a lot of new fans and people.”





Entertainment Role





Kaval suggested that, like credit cards, bitcoin could easily be integrated as an alternative payment method at sports arenas and and other entertainment centres, adding that it’s a matter of allowing the technology to catch on with consumers:





“If you think back to the ’80s or early ’90s, you would go to a lot of places and they wouldn’t accept credit cards. Especially concerts and things like that – it was all cash. So think about how far that’s come.”





Kaval went on to say that integrating bitcoin enables entertainment venues to tap into payment methods that are easiest for customers. Otherwise, venues run the risk of failing to capitalize on that nascent demand.





Other sports clubs have adopt bitcoin as a form of payment this year. In March, Polish soccer club GKS Katowice announced that fans could use bitcoin to pay for tickets and buy merchandise.





At the start of the year, the Sacramento Kings became the first NBA team to begin accepting bitcoin payments. The franchise later opened a bitcoin-only online store.

Monty Henry, Owner













































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