18 Jan 2014 / Wall Street Journal – You can’t get much more mainstream than professional American sports. In that sense, Thursday’s news that the Sacramento Kings basketball team will let its fans use bitcoin to purchase tickets, jerseys, hot dogs and anything else from its selection of products may go down as a key moment in the digital currency’s coming of age.
But this is only the latest in a steady progression of vendors choosing to transact in bitcoin, a group that is at the vanguard of the digital currency’s bid for legitimacy.
There are now tens of thousands of merchants around the world accepting bitcoin. Merchant processor Bitpay now has more 20,000 separate clients and says that at its current rate of growth it will hit 100,000 by year end.
So, even though bitcoin might not yet have truly earned mainstream status, there’s already a lot you can do with it. Here are some of things that your bitcoin will buy:
Cars. In December, a Lamborghini dealership in Costa Mesla, Calif., sold a Tesla Model S to a customer who offered to pay for it with bitcoin. It was fitting: An all-electric vehicle, marketed with a rebellious, disruptive business model, purchased with a currency that’s seen as the ultimate disruptor to the old ways of doing business….. Read more
