eBay Says It's Open To Accepting Cryptocurrencies In Future, Exploring NFTs

EBay is open to the possibility of accepting cryptocurrency as a form of payment in the future and is looking at ways to get non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on its platform, the company said on Monday. Reuters reports: "We are always looking at the most relevant forms of payment and will continue to assess that going forward. We have no immediate plans, but it (cryptocurrency) is something we are keeping an eye on," eBay said in a statement to Reuters. In an interview with CNBC, Chief Executive Officer Jamie Iannone said that accepting virtual currency was an option the company was looking at.

EBay, which disappointed investors with a weak second-quarter profit forecast last week, said it was looking at a "number of ways" to get into the NFT space. NFTs, a type of digital asset that exists on a blockchain, have exploded in popularity this year, with NFT artworks selling for millions of dollars and musicians such as the Kings of Leon rock group embracing them for their latest album. "We're exploring opportunities on how we can enable it (NFTs) on eBay in an easy way," Iannone said on CNBC. "Everything that's collectible has been on eBay for decades and will continue to be for the next few decades."

You can already use crypto on eBay

[Powercntrl]

Sell it on an exchange, then use the fiat to buy something from eBay. Seriously, if eBay ever does accept cryptocoins, they're just going to do the "exchange for equivalent value in fiat" step for you, take out the appropriate sales tax, and send the seller fiat (because most sellers don't want to be paid crypto).

And when your box shows up with a bobcat instead of an office chair [xkcd.com], eBay's buyer protection will refund you in fiat, because there's no way to forcibly reverse a blockchain transaction.

Re:

[shaitand]

"they're just going to do the "exchange for equivalent value in fiat" step for you, take out the appropriate sales tax, and send the seller fiat (because most sellers don't want to be paid crypto)"

Since Paypal accepts crypto now that seems like how ebay already accepts crypto. But if eBay accepted crypto directly you have an extra unneeded step in your process.. specifically 'take out appropriate sales tax' since crypto is a good and not currency in the US you'd be bartering and no sale would have occurred.

Re:

[Powercntrl]

since crypto is a good and not currency in the US you'd be bartering and no sale would have occurred.

eBay hasn't allowed buyers to directly transact with sellers for awhile now. If you look at your PayPal transaction history, you'll see all payments now go to "eBay Inc.", and eBay forwards the proceeds (or remaining proceeds, if sales tax applies) to the seller. Plus, as I already wrote, allowing direct blockchain payments between buyer and seller completely breaks eBay's satisfaction guarantee, where eBay forcibly refunds the buyer out of the seller's PayPal account (you didn't think eBay eats the loss,

Re:

[shaitand]

At some point someone is going to catch on to the fact that we get our sales tax free internet back with crypto 'purchases' and that crypto is deflationary with the 'volatility' only being a short term speculative factor. At that point some players with heavily liquidity are going to massage away that volatility and people are going to embrace crypto far more heavily.

Re:

[Local ID10T]

"they're just going to do the "exchange for equivalent value in fiat" step for you, take out the appropriate sales tax, and send the seller fiat (because most sellers don't want to be paid crypto)"

Since Paypal accepts crypto now that seems like how ebay already accepts crypto. But if eBay accepted crypto directly you have an extra unneeded step in your process.. specifically 'take out appropriate sales tax' since crypto is a good and not currency in the US you'd be bartering and no sale would have occurred.

Whoops... the IRS would like a word with you. Barter is taxable in the USA.

Re:

[shaitand]

Ahem... the IRS collects income tax and not sales tax or barter. As long as you are reporting whatever gain/loss you have on the crypto you'll won't have any troubles with the IRS.

Consequences of the Gresham's law

[sleepghost]

A good money follows the Gresham's law.

A bad money will not follows the Gresham's law, but has the certainty to be worthless on the long run.

In other words, if the money is good nobody will use it for common purchases!

Forget the NFT

[GlennC]

Since not all of us have a convenient rain forest to destroy, The Daily WTF is happy to offer at alternative, the Totally Fungible Token!

https://thedailywtf.com/articles/announcing-the-launch-of-tfts [thedailywtf.com]

NFT

[bsdetector101]

What do you really get except bragging rights ?

ebay is still in the 90s

[kingbilly]

ebay still doesn't have user management. If your company sells on ebay, everyone has to share the same login.
If your customer service employee wants to call ebay to discuss a case, their name has to be on file already. Since this is ebay, you can't manage such a list using the website. Nope, you have to call in. And wait. And wait.
Then you get to have the fun task of spelling out the name of your employee. This would make so much more sense to do on the website directly (something Amazon allows) as no one