last week, were published other controversial reports about Overstock.com the first major shipping company, the of Bitcoin in 2014 as a method of payment. The company decided, due to the falling stock price of the previously announced secondary share sale to withdraw, while at the same time, the CEO and founder Patrick Byrne is on record that he is thinking about a sale of the shipping giants. In addition, the senior Vice President for Finance, and risk management Robert Hughes, is resigning from his Position in Overstock, to a Blockchain Venture to join, Byrne is involved.
Byrne, a supporter of Bitcoin and Blockchain, and high is practically since the first day considered in the crypto-Community. Now, where the pioneer goes through some turbulence, it is important to recall the intense relationship between Overstock and Bitcoin in memory.
Overstocks early days, and Byrne’s war against Wall Street
Byrne founded Overstock in 1977 and brought it in may 1999. Initially, the company acted as an Online marketplace that offered surplus Goods, which he could squander a result of the liquidations of many Dotcom companies, far below the common retail price. At the time Overstock.com closeout sold, we were decor, furniture, bedding, and other products – but also new products.
basically, Byrne is building his business on the hysteria of the 90s the next wave of dot-com companies, or their bankruptcy. His company transformed this Domain into suppliers by offering to sell their inventory.
The head of Overstock held back in his criticism of Wall Street and the mainstream financial sector. Byrnes war with the most influential entities of the USA has been running for over 10 years. This is reflected in his views – as a follower of the Austrian school of Economics he is Convinced that the economy should be based on the views of individuals and not of the Central authorities.
„These institutions, of which we are told that they are neutral and socially neutral rule… becoming tools for a strong [enough] to the press. I distrust the idea of Central banking.“
in fact, Byrne is not a typical business man: He refuses to, the financial dominations, he is also a three-time cancer Besieger, with a doctorate in philosophy, Bond-villain-type Jackets without a collar, and a silk Chinese Shirts.
In 2002, brought Byrne with a so-called Dutch auction, which is also referred to as reverse auction, to the stock exchange. The method allows to obtain the funds directly from the Public, instead of a traditional IPO (IPO) to hold, at what the Wall Street banks in the process would benefit. In this way, the company escaped the oversight of Wall Street, but public capital was generated.
in 2005, Byrne started his campaign against illegal short selling – in which the sold assets are not actually in the possession of the seller, and this failed to be aware of the systems within the standard three days to deliver and the buyer, instead, borrowed the basis of offers value. He argues that this type of the sale of the big financial players will need a tool to hold the shares prices of companies artificially low. In 2007, he continued his crusade against Wall Street, by submitting a 2.8 bn lawsuit against 12 brokerage firms, including Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch. To portrayed the beginning of the press as a conspiracy theorist, but in the Wake of the financial crisis in 2008, he and short sales were taken more seriously.
at the time had agreed all the accused with Overstock, out-of-court: Merrill Lynch Professional Clearing Corp., for example, ended the dispute as the last standing instance of market manipulation lawsuit by Byrne, 2016, by agreed with the shipping merchant to a payment of around 16 million euros.
„Patrick, I have to tell you that you are the most hated man I have ever met. You were once something like the Golden boy of Wall Street, but now you could be a murderer, and we would hate you to the extent, as we do in this city at present,“ quoted Byrne as a „highly respected hedge Fund Manager in New York,“ before he starts with his lecture on the occasion of the Bitcoin conference 2014. He smiles when he thinks of this Meeting, and says he will consider the words as a „high compliment“.
in 2009, went on to Overstock for the first time, a year profit of around 6.2 million euros. With the exception of 2011, when the company confused its customers with an unsightly reinvention campaign, the company is since then, constantly in the black.
Overstocks relationship with Bitcoin
2014 Overstock the first major logistics company, the Bitcoin accepted due to the new acquaintance with Coinbase. In an Interview with Business Insider Byrne:
recalls „We were the first. At the time, the largest company to accept Bitcoin, was a Diner in the West of Australia with an annual turnover of 650,000 euros. We went ahead a step and to close it [BTC] – we were at 1.13 billion euros. Therefore, I believe that we the Community have saved 5 years of the adaptation cycle.
The Transformation was partly by chance: In December 2013, Byrne said to a journalist, casually, that you may start to accept Bitcoin. „I said without Thinking,“ says Byrne. It was not before the conversation is important – at that time, in November 2013 that „the news [of Bitcoin] nail it to the red cross.“ Shortly after the Interview, he began to contact various news services around the world, and to tell them of Overstocks potential step. In the course of which there came about him, to contact Coinbase casually and within a few weeks Overstock.com then the Bitcoin-payment option.
Byrne, a „scourge of wall street“ and a self-professed Austrian economists, through „education and passion“ warmed to the idea of a decentralized currency. „When I first heard of Bitcoin, it reminded me of my Feelings towards Gold,“ he recalls. The eccentric business man even went so weit, Bitcoin refer to as the only salvation from the impending „Zombie Apocalypse“ and to give his interview partners Trump-like red coins with „Make Bitcoin Great Again“.
The initial payment after the acceptance of the crypto currency seemed to be worth it. „The Implementation pays for itself a hundred times, alone by the press,“ claims Byrnes. The crypto-company received the Transformation with open arms.
„Bitcoin users have visited our site and bought a couple of pillows or a bed just, therefore, to show your support to his. So we have sold some hundreds of thousands of products, only two days after we were gone.“
Because of its policy and the direct, courageous forecasts, rose Byrne is quickly becoming a major player in the crypto society. Overstocks shares have moved significantly in the direction of the BTC price, since then, Byrne has become a part of the crypto-world. Overstocks share price rose by four times between July and December 2017, while Bitcoin grew in the same period by a factor of 7 and the year with an average profit of around 200 per cent completed.
Due to the company’s performance were rumors loud, that the main could start a competitor, and Internet retail giant Amazon to accept Bitcoin. The Nigerian businessman, Emmanuel Olorunisola felt comfortable from the Overstocks success has inspired and brought a similar Service in his country. „I stumbled across Overstock and saw how a wrist watch for $ 28 is sold, because I was excited and decided to place an order,“ he recalls. His page even went so far as to only accept crypto-currencies.
However, the dependence of Bitcoin works in both direction: As a Bitcoin in January 2018, 50 percent of its value within a month lost, the company’s assessment of Overstock by 11 per cent to a value of close to 1.45 billion euros due to the loss of about 160 million euros in shares.
In August 2017, was announced by Overstock that it would hold to the half of the Bitcoin payments as an Investment. Previously, the company had kept for this purpose only 5 to 10 percent. In a telephone conference on the occasion of the accounting of the company, Byrne noted that the company received around 40.500 euros per week in BTC.
„Now we transfer just 50 percent and keep the Rest in Bitcoin. And then, at regular intervals, we put it – we have cashed in the Bitcoin and to 4 million Euro earn – somewhere in the rotation.“, so the CEO to Business Insider. The new company policy States that half of the revenue to be kept on the online store, which will be made in Bitcoin, while Overstock switch to the other half in dollars.
Even though Byrne admits that only a fifth of a percent of all sales on Overstock are made in Bitcoin, he would have never expected that the share would eventually be as significant. In fact, he had aligned his technology Team is hardly on crypto-currencies.
In February, Byrne began to highlight the relatively unknown cryptocurrency Ravencoin to the top. When Business Insider asked him if he had „all the crypto-currencies“ interest or „right interested in Blockchain“, gave Byrne a surprising response that he was „really interested in crypto-currencies per se“. He revealed, however, unknown to the Blockchain-project, in which his company had „invested millions of dollars,“ and allows for a Form of Mining, for the man „needs no Mining farms in China“.
Ravencoin entered the market on 3. January 2018 is very inconspicuous, with a small 4-page white paper, and was on 14. January mentioned for the first Time on bitcointalk.org . The post is written about the launch that she was accompanied by „very little Information about the future of the project“, but that „since then, several Community members have learned that an active development team behind the Coin.“ According to Bruce Fenton, a Board member at Medici Ventures (a complete of Overstock.com held subsidiary), whether Byrne was interested in Ravencoin, since he himself had talked to the Overstock CEO of „at a dinner in Boston“.
Blockchain over Bitcoin (and profits)
Byrne avoids the Label „Bitcoin Messiah“, under the Wired 2014, a profile for him. For the managing Director, the Blockchain is more important than the currency behind it. „Blockchain is a machine that creates trust,“ he says, while he explains why it is so difficult to establish the technology into the Mainstream. To this purpose, founded the Byrne the VC company within Overstock called Medici Ventures, which will use the company money for investment into Blockchain Startups.
The best-known crypto-subsidiary of Overstock’s tZero. Basically, your goal is to eliminate brokers and to compete with traditional stock exchanges – just like Byrne, it has always been painted.
„If you have a stock Broker account, and your share Manager to call and pay the $ 15, just so the trade takes place. This 15 Dollar a lot of mouths to feed stopper by infiltrating pointless verse. The Disappearance in the medical system, the banks can be prevented by the introduction of a much simpler system that is robust and 80 or 90 percent cheaper. And, above all, all the misdeeds that occur on Wall Street can’t happen here“.
Last autumn, Overstocks shares jumped jumped after it was announced that the company plans an alternative trading platform for ICO-Tokens, based on a triangular partnership between the subsidiaries tZero, Argon and RenGen. The share price of retail giant climbed with 24,18 euros, its highest value since 2014 and continued the Trend of steadily rising dividends. The platform is set up so that you are guaranteed the highest levels of compliance with the regulatory frameworks of the USA – an important point for Byrne, who commented positively about the efforts of the U.S. securities and exchange Commission acting Commission for securities trading (SEC), to regulate the industry.
„I am, in fact, that the SEC is attacking harder. The ICO enthusiasm this year has led to a lot of people have been fleeced. There are a lot of people who bring Coins without any business model on the market.“
Ironically, the SEC in the course of their crypto-began-examination, you tZero in more detail, after which the share price of the company decreased by about 10 percent.
Byrne’s latest project is a collaboration between the Overstock subsidiary Medici Ventures and Hernando de Soto, a renowned Peruvian economists. By the end of 2017 they had reasons, together with a new register company with the name DeSoto to the Blockchain-technologies for the Transfer of Rights and for the protection of intellectual property to use, by falsification difficult about property rights.
DeSoto wants to start in 2018, a pilot system on the market. To the Financial Times, Byrne said that he had „a moral obligation“, his life in this area. This includes the partial or complete sale of Overstock, because the new company could use this money.
„is One of the possibilities of the sale of the business, and we have the capital we need,“ says Byrne.