Virgin‘s space traveling service, Virgin Galactic, has announced that they will now be accepting BitCoins as a means of payment for a trip to space.
Virgin Galactic – the initiative that will make it possible to travel to space on a commercial level – is probably Richard Branson‘s biggest and most far-out idea to date. The project initially garnered a lot of criticism, with people not buying into the commercialization of space travel.
However, since it was announced, many have warmed up to the idea of traveling to space as apart of your holiday.
A very expensive holiday that is. If you are planning on an inter-galactic vacation, you will have to fork out $250 000 – per ticket! Or, alternatively, you can use your BitCoins.
Sir Richard Branson himself announced on Virgin‘s blog that BitCoins will be accepted for space trips. The cost? 329 BitCoins. That is with BitCoins being valued currently at $759 for one BitCoin.
The reasoning behind introducing BitCoin as an accepted payment method for Virgin Galactic trips, is simply because Branson is a fan of the whole BitCoin idea.
For those who are still in the dark, BitCoin is a peer-to-peer digital currency. It also functions without any intermediation of a central authority. i.e banks.
You can check out this video on BitCoins to understand a bit more:
BitCoin is not yet formally recognized as a currency by governments, but the new currency is definitely gaining momentum and will soon be unable to ignore. And this is what Sir Richard hopes for:
“œBitcoins 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“ the billionaire said.
Although, BitCoin has already been implemented as a legitimate currency in many ventures. The digital currency has also recently infiltrated the academic world. A university in Cyprus has announced that that will now allow their students to pay for their tuition with BitCoins.
And if you were wondering if anyone would actually purchase a ticket with BitCoins, the answer is yes. A female flight attendant from Hawaii has already purchased her Virgin Galactic ticket by using BitCoins.
Space travel and a whole new digital currency – it sure does seem as though the world is changing, and changing fast. Are you happy about it?
