Dell to accept payment in bitcoin

Computer giant Dell has started accepting bitcoin in the UK, becoming the first major retailer and the biggest to accept bitcoin in the UK, thanks to its partnership with Bitcoin wallet Coinbase.

The company, last year started accepting Bitcoin in the US and received payment for a $50,000 computer system in Bitcoin, bought through dell.com.

The company's chief information officer, Paul Walsh said Dell was hearing from its customers around the world that they wanted the option to use bitcoin when buying Dell products.

Fred Ehrsam, Coinbase co-founder said Coinbase was pleased to partner with Dell once again, this time bringing its customers in the UK and Canada the option to pay with bitcoin.

He added, Dell saw that many of its customers wanted to pay with the currency and responded by quickly working with Coinbase to give them that option. Dell was now the largest merchant to accept bitcoin internationally, paving the way for retailers around the world to follow suit.

Meanwhile, Jonathan Marino, writes in a blog post in Business Insider Australia, that just because Dell was taking payment in Bitcoin, it did not mean he was technically investing in the product.

Other companies like Overstock.com that also accepted virtual currency payments often immediately converted it into cash, via exchanges like Coinbase, to cut their exposure in a volatile investment product.

Accepting but not holding it essentially meant, that Dell wanted people to be able to pay with Bitcoin technology if they wanted, but was not necessarily yet ready to trust Bitcoin as a currency.