Bitcoin enthusiasts now have a new place to shop.
Square announced on Monday that it has begun accepting cryptocurrency as a form of payment for online purchases.
Buyers can choose to “Pay with Bitcoin,” which creates a bitcoin attached to the order. Merchants, according to Square, have effectively isolated the process and are not at any risk from the ever-changing price of bitcoins.
“The seller receives the amount of the purchased goods or services in U.S. dollars, and this amount is displayed to the customer at the time of the transaction,” Ajit Varma, a director at Square, wrote in a blog post. “Thus, the seller does not assume any risk for fluctuations in the value of Bitcoin.”
A small but growing number of businesses have added bitcoin payments as an option in recent months, including Zynga, Lord & Taylor and Overstock.com. Earlier this month, Overstock revealed that customers had purchased more than $1 million worth of merchandise with bitcoins in about two months.
