© Taylor Hill/Getty ImagesOverstock CEO Patrick Byrne
Overstock.com, which sells everything from bedding to dinnerware online, recently announced it would accept bitcoin as early as June, making it the first U.S. retailer to use the virtual currency. Still in its experimental phase, bitcoin has fluctuated from as low as $13 in January to more than $1,200 in December.
And while it has had a wild ride, Overstock's (
OSTK) plans to accept bitcoin as payment shouldn't be read as another bet that the currency will soar higher, says CEO Patrick Byrne.
Fortune caught up with Byrne over telephone on Monday from his office in Utah. The executive is known to be a doomsdayer, siding with the likes of former libertarian U.S. Congressman Ron Paul, who has argued that the U.S. should return to the gold standard and that the Federal Reserve should be abolished.
Byrne thinks bitcoin could be a helpful addition to the payment system, but even he has mixed feelings about the currency. Here's an edited version of our chat:
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