On March 17th, Rakuten announced full integration with Bitnet’s digital commerce platform. As of March 31st, US Rakuten users may now take advantage of this integration.
Rakuten is currently Japan’s largest online retailer, and plan on rolling out globally with their Bitcoin acceptance. In a press release, the President of Rakuten USA explained, “Not only can bitcoin support this vision by helping our merchants better compete globally, but it also has the potential to benefit society by enhancing the security, privacy, and convenience of financial transactions.”
To further enhance security of Rakuten transactions, multi-signature escrow support for many high-value items was also announced. This support makes Rakuten the largest company in the world to take advantage of multi-signature transactions. Improving transaction security is not all Rakuten’s doing to encourage Bitcoin usage.
The company has claimed that a 30$ discount on 100$ or more bitcoin purchases will be in effect for the first week of April. Similar campaigns are planned to continue throughout the year to promote Rakuten Bitcoin usage.
