Bitcoin Battle Royale: Coinbates vs. Coinrebates

www.coinbates.com VS. www.coinrebates.com

Over the past decade, the online shopping space has absolutely exploded, to the point where the inability to purchase an item online can turn a promising store into a thing of the past. Once the online shopping market took a huge chunk of the market share, companies realized what was happening and integrated accordingly.

A recent trend with many online shoppers is the idea of rebate shopping – if you purchase an item via a certain website you can earn cash back and rewards or even money towards future purchases. The stores know how much we’re spending online – and they’re throwing money at us in order to keep it coming. Now that online rebate shopping is pretty much a staple, Bitcoin merchants began to take notice, resulting in our first official Bitcoin Battle Royale – where we pit 2 similar Bitcoin merchants against each other and see the advantages of one over the other.

So, without further ado we present the 1^st annual BBR: Shopping Edition. In the red corner is Coinbates, and its opponent in the blue corner is Coinrebates – yes, even the names are super similar!

Right off the bat, Coinrebates.com is going to dominate this battle, simply because Coinbates is still in the invite-only stage. I just went through the sign-up process with Coinbates.com and after inputting my Bitcoin address, I was added to the queue… behind 28,793 other people. But since I actually have a Bitcoin wallet already I am supposedly on top of the list. We’ll have to wait and see.

Now, you might be thinking that this isn’t a fair fight, but I think this could be an exciting ongoing analysis of the sites and how the differ from one another. Just because CoinRebates is on top right now doesn’t mean it always will be. But let’s have a look about what that site is capable of.

After inputting your Bitcoin address with Coinrebates (no special priority here unfortunately) you are immediately directed to a list of their reward vendors. From Newegg to Expedia to Best Buy to Macy’s, Starbucks to Groupon, Coinrebates has covered many of the top merchants around the world. There are food and electronics chains mixed in with travel vendors and department stores – what more could you want?

The rewards listed on the site range from 1% cash back to a whopping 8% offered by two of the merchants. That’s a pretty good amount considering this site deals with Bitcoin. After that, you just choose a store to be directed to and shop the day away. The site is very straightforward, and considering it offers more than 20 of the biggest online retailers, it should service many Bitcoin shoppers.

It’s safe to say that Coinrebates has officially won round 1, but while the battle may be done, the war is far from over. Once Coinbates is up and running we should have a decent indication of how these two will fight for market share and provide the best reward shopping experience to Bitcoin users. For now, enjoy the rewards at Coinrebates.com and stay tuned for the next Bitcoin Battle Royale.

Update: July 22, 2015

I have officially received my invite code from Coinbates. I wasn’t sure if I actually believed that I was on top of the list for inputting a Bitcoin address, but apparently they weren’t kidding. The bad news is that even though I’m in, I’m still waiting. Stay tuned for more info as Coinbates launches.