New Delhi: In an important development, Billionaire Elon Musk on Wednesday announced that bitcoin can be used to purchase a Tesla vehicle. This option is currently limited to customers in the United States and people in other countries will be able to use the feature later this year.
Soon after the announcement, social media was filled with varied reactions to the decision which was hinted at by Tesla back in February this year.
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"You can now buy a Tesla with bitcoin," Elon Musk had tweeted, adding that "Tesla is using only internal & open source software & operates bitcoin nodes directly. Bitcoin paid to Tesla will be retained as Bitcoin, not converted to fiat currency".
Various reactions have poured in over the announcement, here are some of the tweets:
Elon Musk has been a huge supporter of Bitcoin, the world's most famous and largest cryptocurrency. Tesla had last month jolted customers as it stated that it was buying 1.5 billion in Bitcoin as part of a new investment strategy. "I think bitcoin is on the verge of getting broad acceptance by conventional finance people," the billionaire had said.
This was followed by BNY Mellon, the oldest bank in the US, saying it would include digital currencies in the services. Mastercard also said that it would start supporting select cryptocurrencies on its network.
Meanwhile, experts maintain that the rise of cryptocurrency is inevitable. Bitcoin and other digital currencies are predicted to become transactional currencies increasingly over the next five years even as companies currently remain hesitant to accept Bitcoin for payment because of its volatility.