BTCS (company)

BTCS Inc.
Type Public
Traded as OTCQB: BTCS
Founded June 20, 2013 (2013-06-20)
Headquarters Arlington, Virginia, U.S
Key people
  • Charles Allen (CEO)
  • Michal Handerhan (COO)
  • Tim Sidie (Lead Engineer)
Industry
Website www.btcs.com

BTCS, Inc. is an early mover[1] in the blockchain and digital currency ecosystems and the first pure play U.S. publicly traded company focused on blockchain technologies.[2][3] BTCS, Inc. intends to secure the blockchain by developing its transaction verification services business and plans to build a broader ecosystem to capitalize on opportunities in the rapidly growing and competitive industry. BTCS, Inc.'s publicly stated goal[4] is to evaluate and build additional blockchain technology consumer solutions and actively partners and integrates with digital currency and blockchain technology companies who provide products or services that are complementary to its proposed business strategy.

Services

Transaction Verification Service Business (bitcoin mining)

BTCS, Inc. has stated that they believe they can establish and expand a low cost transaction verification services business (bitcoin mining) and believe this will provide revenue growth and integrate with BTCS, Inc.'s platform development efforts, and strengthen as well as secure the bitcoin network.[5] In January 2015, BTCS announced finalizing a two-year lease for an 83,000 square foot facility.[6]

E-commerce Marketplace

BTCS, Inc. believes that their bitcoin e-commerce marketplace was the first such site to accept bitcoin. The BTCS beta e-commerce marketplace claims to offer over 250,000 curated products and utilizes a so-called “Intelligent Shopping Engine” to find competitive prices on products from over 250 retailers. In early 2014, BTCS began a redesign of its e-commerce marketplace to incorporate its Intelligent Shopping Engine as an added feature to its e-commerce marketplace. During 2014, many new businesses (such as Dell,[7] Microsoft,[8] Overstock,[9] Newegg,[10] TigerDirect,[11] and DISH Network[12]) opted to accept bitcoin as a form of payment. While this poses competition for its marketplace efforts, BTCS management has stated it believes this strengthens the acceptance of bitcoin and should, in the long run, be beneficial to its planned universal platform and contribute to a growth of user adoption of virtual currencies.

The online e-commerce marketplace is hosted, maintained, and developed by BTCS, Inc. BTCS, Inc.'s software works as an interface with third-party vendors to search for competitive prices in real time and display up-to-date inventory, presenting prices in bitcoin, Litecoin or Dogecoin according to the instantaneous exchange rate from USD.[13] The exchange rate is updated frequently and at each stage of the checkout process, when customers reach the checkout page the exchange rate is locked in by the payment processor for 15 minutes and the payment processor assumes the currency exchange risk (unless BTCS choose to accept the digital currency). All marketplace customer orders are fulfilled by third party vendors and BTCS is not involved in the logistics chain. However, BTCS oversees the fulfillment process. BTCS charges its customers a processing fee on transactions if BTCS is not in the affiliate program with the end retailer selling a particular product. According to their terms of operation, If BTCS is a part of an affiliate program, BTCS is paid affiliate fees by the retailer.

Bitcoin Wallet

The BTCS secure bitcoin storage solution (digital wallet), which is currently in invitation-only beta, claims to offer a uniquely secure way for their users to store their bitcoins. The BTCS digital wallet is built on Gem’s[14] technology and utilizes a multi-signature solution to secure every transaction with three keys. Every transaction requires valid signatures from at least two of the following three keys:[15]

  1. The BTCS cosigning key
  2. The Primary key
  3. The Offline Backup key

BTCS and/or Gem will only be in possession of the BTCS cosigning key and therefore are not in control of user funds. The BTCS beta digital wallet partners with Authy,[16] a provider of two-factor authentication, to prevent unauthorized access. BTCS, Inc. will integrate its wallet and e-commerce marketplace to share one user login. Additionally BTCS, Inc. has announced plans to develop a digital wallet Android application, which would compete with other mobile wallet providers such as Circle, Coinbase, and others.

Investments

BTCS have so far partnered with and invested in several digital currency companies to further its stated efforts to build a universal digital currency platform in its goal to serve the community.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Overstock.com And Bitcoin Shop Offer Virtual Currency First-Mover Advantages - Mar. 26, 2014. http://seekingalpha.com/article/2111343-overstock-com-and-bitcoin-shop-offer-virtual-currency-first-mover-advantages
  2. ↑ Meet the First Public Bitcoin Company - February 11, 2014. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/b/d29dc63c-5e6e-4ff7-ab4f-6bf91846a917
  3. ↑ Bitcoin Shop to Trade Publicly Over the Counter - Feb. 6, 2014. http://www.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304450904579367293415457138?KEYWORDS=bitcoin
  4. ↑ BTCS Net Mining and Focus - August 7, 2015. https://www.dukascopy.com/tv/en#162001
  5. ↑ Bitcoin Shop Expands Mining, ATM Businesses, Rebrands as Blockchain Technology Consumer Solutions - January 8, 2015. http://www.financemagnates.com/cryptocurrency/news/bitcoin-shop-expands-mining-atm-businesses-rebrands-as-blockchain-technology-consumer-solutions/>
  6. ↑ BTCS Enters Mining Sector in a Market-Share Grab - March 25, 2015. https://bitcoinmagazine.com/19735/btcs-enters-mining-sector-market-share-grab/
  7. ↑ Dell now accepts Bitcoin http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/uscorp1/campaigns/bitcoin-marketing
  8. ↑ Now you can exchange bitcoins to buy apps, games and more for Windows, Windows Phone and Xbox. http://blogs.microsoft.com/firehose/2014/12/11/now-you-can-exchange-bitcoins-to-buy-apps-games-and-more-for-windows-windows-phone-and-xbox/
  9. ↑ Overstock.com Becomes First Major Retailer to Accept Bitcoin Worldwide - September 11, 2014. http://www.wired.com/2014/09/overstock-com-becomes-first-major-retailer-accept-bitcoin-worldwide/
  10. ↑ Newegg now accepts bitcoin - July 1, 2014. http://www.theverge.com/2014/7/1/5860556/newegg-now-accepts-bitcoin
  11. ↑ US retailer TigerDirect accepts Bitcoin payments - January 24, 2014. http://www.cnet.com/news/us-retailer-tigerdirect-accepts-bitcoin-payments/
  12. ↑ DISH Network Goes Virtual: We'll Take Your Bitcoin - May 29, 2014. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/b/554f5bd6-8a9e-4b79-8b3e-75df1017e13a
  13. ↑ Accepting Only Digital Money, Bitcoin Shop Overhauls Its Online Marketplace - September 4, 2014. http://www.digitaltransactions.net/news/story/Accepting-Only-Digital-Money_-Bitcoin-Shop-Overhauls-Its-Online-Marketplace
  14. ↑ Gem - https://gem.co/
  15. ↑ Gem Multi-Key Signature Security - https://gem.co/security
  16. ↑ Authy - https://www.authy.com/
  17. ↑ Bitcoin Shop Inc. To Invest in GoCoin Payment Platform - March 26, 2014. https://coinreport.net/gocoin-payment-platform-investment/
  18. ↑ Bitcoin API Developer Gem Raises $2 Million in Seed Funding - September 17, 2014. http://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-api-developer-gem-raises-2m-funding/
  19. ↑ Bitcoin Shop, Inc. (BTCS) and Spondoolies-Tech Move Forward with Merger - June 10, 2015. https://bitcoinmagazine.com/20792/bitcoin-shop-inc-btcs-spondoolies-tech-move-forward-merger/

External links

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