Zero Hedge
December 22, 2017
A rudimentary payments network that can only process – on average – about 7 transactions every 10 minutes isn’t deterring merchants from accepting bitcoin for large-scale purchases like homes and cars.
To wit, the owner of a car dealership near Albany told a local news station that he will begin accepting bitcoin, as the Associated Press reported.
Michael Severance, of Michael’s Auto Plaza, tells WTEN-TV the dealership recently started accepting the digital currency. Severance says he became interested in bitcoin as its value rose. The East Greenbush businessman says he wanted his dealership to take advantage of an opportunity.
Severance says he saw people buying large pieces of property with the digital currency and figured cars should be no different.
Severence told a local TV station that the digital currency’s staggering appreciation inspired him to accept it as payment.
“Certain things boom and they just take off. They take off quick. You have to capture it while it’s hot.”
He also asserted that bitcoin “isn’t going away any time soon.”
As we pointed out late last week, sellers of luxury homes and apartments are increasingly demanding payment in bitcoin. One seller who accepted payment in bitcoin for his Texas home over the summer has already notched a return of more than 300%. When the transaction occurred, bitcoin was trading at around $4,000 a coin. On Wednesday, it was trading closer to $16,000 after touching an all-time peak near $20,000.
One seller advertising a luxury Miami condo on Redfin.com stipulated that he would only accept payment in bitcoin. And increasingly,high end real-estate brokers in markets like Miami and New York City say their clients are expressing interest in digital currencies.
But even though sluggish and unpredictable transaction times have become a barrier to adoption, in some places,…