Coinbase Announces Pricing in 'Bits' and Bitcoin Buyback Option

Bitcoin payment processor Coinbase is now enabling merchants to display the cost of their goods and services in smaller denominations of bitcoins – "bits".

The San Francisco-based company, which has so far raised funding totalling $31.7m, explained that using bits means prices can be displayed using two decimal places, which consumers are already used to.

Currently, a single bitcoin is divided into eight decimal places, with each unit known as a “Satoshi”. One bit (or µBTC) is worth 100 Satoshis, so something worth $1 can be priced at 1,700 bits rather than 0.0017 BTC.

The company has also announced the launch of a "repurchase" feature, which enables users to immediately top up their bitcoin wallets after they make a purchase in the digital currency.

Once placing an order via the checkout page of a site that uses Coinbase as its bitcoin payment processor, users can click a "Repurchase" button and refill their wallet directly from their bank account. Previously, users had to navigate to the main site’s “Buy” page in order to add more bitcoins to their wallets.

A walk-through of the process can be found on the Coinbase blog.

Earlier this week, the company endorsed an unofficial Coinbase bitcoin wallet that was launched on the Apple App Store.

Developed by AirBnB developer and bitcoin enthusiast Andrew Vilcsak, the open-source app was give a thumbs-up by Coinbase on Friday:

Great to see this community contributed app! We reached out to the dev to review the code and believe it is secure. https://t.co/hPZVSr7GOI

— Coinbase (@coinbase) June 20, 2014

The app allows users to send and receive bitcoins, view their transaction history and balance, and otherwise manage their Coinbase account.