Bitcoin is about to get a whole lot more useful than it already is, following last week’s announcement that Overstock.com is to begin accepting the currency soon. In interviews given to both the Financial Times and the Los Angeles Times, Overstock’s CEO Patrick Byrne revealed that the company will begin accepting payments via Bitcoin some time next year, possibly within just four months time. If and when it happens, Overstock.com would become the largest retailer to accept the cryptocurrency so far.

Overstock’s decision could have massive implications for Bitcoin because other online retailers might be forced to follow suit. As Coindesk pointed out in a follow up interview with Byrne, Bitcoin has the advantage of being more cost-effective for both businesses and customers, and so even if other retailers aren’t interested, their customers could well force them into accepting the virtual currency.

Interestingly it’s not just the financial reasons that persuaded Overstock to embrace Bitcoin. It seems that Byrne himself is something of an enthusiast, telling the Los Angeles Times that the decision is “part and parcel with my belief in a limited government”, due to its decentralized nature.

As far as other businesses go, only time will tell if they come to follow Byrne’s lead. Many businesses have been deterred from accepting Bitcoin due to its volatility, but this isn’t really that big of an issue. Firstly, if more companies begin accepting Bitcoin it’s likely to become more stable in the future anyway, and secondly, Overstock will do all it can to minimize this risk. Rather than hoard its coming trove of Bitcoins, Byrne said that the company plans to exchange BTC deposits into good ol’ US dollars every 24 hours, thereby eliminating any threat that comes from BTC’s wild fluctuations.

This is actually a necessary step for a publicly listed company like Overstock, as there’s still a great deal of ambiguity as to how businesses can legally balance the books when dealing in Bitcoin, notes Coindesk. To date, the Internal Revenue Service still hasn’t provided any guidance with regards to virtual currencies. No doubt it will do so at some stage, but in the meantime companies will have far fewer headaches if they just cash out their BTC at the end of each day.

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