Western miners push for higher metals prices to ward off Chinese rivals
Industry leaders have pushed for two pricing structures for several years.
As bitcoin prices and popularity reach record highs (inching close to $1,000 per BTC on Tuesday), more and more merchants are willing to accept it as a form of payment.
What are these magical institutions that accept bitcoins?
For starters, there’s a university in Cyprus …
University of Nicosia (UNic)
University of Nicosia | Screen capture from UNic website
UNic earned its claim to fame last week by becoming the first university to accept the digital currency as payment for tuition and other fees.
“We are acutely aware that digital currency is an inevitable technical development that will lead to significant innovation,” said Dr. Christos Vlachos, the University’s CFO said.
Space flights!
Virgin Galactic | Creative Commons image by Jeff Foust
Feel like going to space? Virgin Galactic will gladly take your bitcoins as payment, the founder of the space airline announced last week, calling the currency “a brilliantly conceived idea.”
Businesses in Vancouver, BC
India Gate restaurant in Vancouver started accepting bitcoins in May this year. Owner Gurmeet Gupta told Vancouver Courier that it allows him to avoid charges associated with credit and debit card purchases. There are a variety of other business in Vancouver that also accept the cyrpto-currency, including a Waves Coffee shop and a fitness studio.
Black Friday deals
More than 200 retailers are participating in BitcoinBlackFriday, an online deal site that allows consumers to spend their bitcoins on deals for everything from Christmas trees to travel packages.
Pay for rent … in Lithuania
According to the Guardian, you can rent a room in Druskininkai, Lithuania. Or an apartment in Dubrovnik, Croatia or Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The possibilities are endless.
Dental work
The Penny Meadow Dental Practice in Ashton, UK also accepts bitcoins, according to the Guardian.
3 Comments
Matt
What do the merchants do with their bitcoins then? Buy something else? So in other words, it is a swap of services that will avoid taxes for awile in some cases and in others simply sell a product that is not selling well in the current climate.
Greg
I have a scuba dive travel business and book travel for people all over the world. The challenge for me is exchanging funds and banks hit me with big fees for wire transfers, PayPal has big fees, etc. Bitcoins solve the fee problem for me. I still pay business taxes, but have just boosted my profit a tad by not paying currency fees. http://www.liquiddivingadventures.com
bluepeahen
What if you want to buy something that isn’t valued at $1000?
(or what-ever the Bitcoin is worth that day)
I totally don’t ‘get’ this system. But I’m interested.