Virgin Galactic to accept Bitcoin for space flights
flight venture created by the billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson,
is accepting Bitcoin: this means the new crypto-millionaires and space
aficionados can now use their digital coins to pay for an exciting and unique trip. The news was announced by Branson himself on CNBC’s show “Squawk Box”.
Branson said. The lucky space traveler is a flight attendant from
Hawaii. Apparently, the woman made “quite a lot of money getting into
Bitcoin early on”, he told CNBC.
and then Virgin Galactic converted the amount into US dollars,
specifically $250,000. “There’s a fixed price [and] we can actually pay
her money back, if she changes her mind about going to space in a few
months”.
and is holding on for the long-term. “I have invested in some Bitcoins
myself and find it fascinating how a whole new global currency has been
created”, he wrote on Virgin’s website. Brason even compared the virtual coin with his own business.
aren’t yet formally recognized by governments as a currency, but with some regulation I hope that it will become more widely accepted.
A few years ago many people had doubts about whether Virgin Galactic
would ever get off the ground. Now we have gone supersonic, are a long
way along the testing process, and are looking forward to launching
commercial space travel”.
Open your free digital wallet here to store your cryptocurrencies in a safe place.
Cypriot university to accept Bitcoin payments
(YahooFinance) Cyprus’ biggest private university said Thursday it will start
accepting the digital currency Bitcoin as an alternative way to pay
tuition fees.
been a hub for international banking before suffering a collapse in its
financial system this year, leading the government to impose controls on
the flow of capital as it accepted an international bailout.
But
the University of Nicosia said the move to accept Bitcoin was unrelated
to the controls. Rather, it was meant to help foreign students in
countries where traditional banking transactions are either difficult or
costly to pay for programs such as online degrees.
The
university’s chief financial officer, Christos Vlachos, said the
institution, which has about 8,500 students enrolled, is the first in
the world to take Bitcoin payments.
Bitcoin is a
cryptography-based digital currency that advocates say is
counterfeit-proof. Its value is determined by supply — which is limited
by its design — and demand. Among the various criticisms leveled at
Bitcoin are that it is too prone to price swings against other
currencies to be useful.
Vlachos said payments are free of risk
for the university since it immediately converts the digital currency to
euros at the day’s exchange rate.
He said that the university is
also offering a new Masters’ degree in digital currency, a field he says
is the monetary equivalent of the Internet in its infancy.
“It’s the gold of tomorrow,” Vlachos told the Associated Press.
He
said the Cypriot government should set up a regulatory framework to
attract digital currency trading companies and boost the bailed-out
country’s foundering economy.
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A map of Bitcoin-friendly businesses
(WashingtonPost) The tech-crazed Bay Area seems like an obvious place to find
bitcoin-friendly businesses. But you’ll also find them in less likely
locations. Rooks Comics and Games, in Bozeman, Mont., for instance. An
antique shop in the French Quarter of New Orleans. Alberty’s Broadway
Liquor in Muskogee, Okla., about an hour out of Tulsa. And the Church of
Saint John the Evangelist in Goshen, N.Y.
On the East Coast, you’ll find at least four venues in Manhattan and
nine in Brooklyn. Washington, D.C., sadly, has only two places where you
can spend your digital cash, and one of them seems to be a think tank
of sorts. But take your bitcoins to Cambridge, Mass., and you’ll find a
welcome at a fusion eatery named Thelonious Monkfish and a diner called
Veggie Galaxy.
If you find a business that’s is accepting bitcoin, add it on Coinmap.org !
Open your free digital wallet here to store your cryptocurrencies in a safe place.
Richard Brown, executive architect, IBM thinks the future for crypto-currencies looks very bright.
Bitcoin, the world’s first decentralised digital currency, entered mainstream consciousness this year: Bitcoin-focused startups are accessing venture capital and industry commentators talk about it as an important international payment mechanism of the future. But are we interpreting its significance too narrowly? In this video, Richard Brown, IBM Executive Architect for Banking and Financial Markets Industry Innovation, argues that Bitcoin’s true significance lies in its potential as a global digital asset register and in the lessons it teaches us for design of complex distributed systems. He also explains why recent law-enforcement action against operators of illegal websites that transacted in Bitcoin will help accelerate adoption by legitimate businesses.”
Open your free digital wallet here to store your cryptocurrencies in a safe place.