Overstock will not sell retail business, expects blockchain business growth

Overstock planned on selling its retail business this year in order to embrace blockchain fully. However, it seems the company might not be making that move anytime soon. Patrick Byrne, Overstock CEO, discussed its potential profitability during Overstock’s Q4 2018 earnings conference call, CoinTelegraph writes. According to Byrne, retail is going to bring substantial revenue in 2019. He predicted Overstock would do "$115 million dollars better than last year,” with $82 million attributed to improving retail contribution. Byrne believes 2019 is panning out to be “a year of explosive growth.”

Although the company incurred losses last year and used a significant amount of funds for its Medici and tZERO initiatives per its annual report to the SEC, Byrne said Overstock's blockchain projects "are some of the most significant and cutting-edge in the world, and we are just reaching the point where our products are being introduced to the public.” He gave tZERO’s security token trading platform as an example.

During the conference call, Overstock has also discussed the creation of “Government-as-a-Service.” The presentation outlines six key elements of the service: identity, land titling, banking & currency, capital markers, supply chain, and voting.