For those still mourning the demise of early bitcoin auction sites like Bitmit, there is a new place to bid for a special deal with your cryptocurrency: OneWallet.io.
Like Internet auction giant eBay, OneWallet has both bidding auctions and direct sales from anyone who wishes to join as a retailer, with 620 product listings in categories including electronics, fashion, health and beauty, and home and garden after only two weeks of public activity.
As the name implies, OneWallet also functions as a digital wallet for users to store their bitcoins, even if they're not spending them on the site. The system automatically generates new wallets for merchant or buyer accounts, though all customers are free to use their existing external ones.
The new site is working in partnership with CoinsForTech.com, an established online electronics retailer that accepts bitcoin, dogecoin and litecoin, and has already processed over $500,000 in orders to 56 countries. It should be noted, however, that OneWallet for the moment accepts only bitcoin.
Both companies have the same founder, Lee Marburg, and are registered in Australia. Sellers are based in several countries so far, but can be anywhere, and generally ship worldwide.
Encouraging bitcoin use
Speaking to CoinDesk, Marburg said he built the site with Bitcoin Brisbane founder Lucas Cullen in their spare time over the past six months. Testing was conducted privately with select customers over the two months before the public launch.
One aim, he said, was to build a beginner-friendly bitcoin wallet and an avenue for people to actually use the digital currency to buy goods and services.
Marburg added:
"The second aim is to push bitcoin as an international trading tool. My experience with CoinsForTech has been hugely positive and I’ve got no doubts that bitcoin/digital currency has a huge role to play in the future of international B2B and B2C commerce. I am associated with some powerful suppliers and merchants who are not overly keen on accepting bitcoin."
OneWallet could entice these reluctant merchants with "a relatively hands-free option to get their feet wet" with bitcoin, he said, while also creating buyer demand for purchasing with bitcoin through low fees and an easy-to-use platform.
The company charges merchants 2% of the final price for every successful listing.
Building in features
Buyers on OneWallet are also protected when purchasing from any merchant with the 'BusinessVerified' badge next to its name. The company investigates any claim pertaining to a purchase from a verified seller and refunds the USD value of the purchase if the claim is successful.
Future plans, Marburg said, included merchants being remunerated in their local currencies if they wished. He described this as "a non-negotiable for bringing 'blue-chip' merchants on board", and said OneWallet is already in negotiations with potential payment processors.
Additionally, within weeks, wallets will have two-of-three multisig and invoicing features, plus two factor authentication (2FA) logins via Google Authenticator or Authy. 2FA is already active for wallet withdrawals.
Global customer base
Since OneWallet has only been live for two weeks, Marburg said there has been only a handful of paying customers so far, but that those customers have come from all continents, except Africa and South America.
The majority of current merchants are based in Asia and the US, but mainly Hong Kong, Singapore and China. He said OneWallet had targeted Asia purposefully, as the region was able to service most of the world at a fraction of the cost of most Western countries, particularly with shipping.
Most products listed on the site are available for shipping internationally at reasonable rates, such as $5-10 for a smartphone and $20 for a DSLR camera.
All prices are marked in US dollars, though Marburg said another planned customer feature is the ability to set a preferred local currency. This would in turn enable sellers to list items in whatever currency they want, with the BTC equivalent displayed alongside.
Bid button image via Shutterstock