Richard Branson Cosigns Bitcoin, Accepts Virtual Currency As Payment For Virgin Galactic Flights

Sky high.

Image via Virgin

This is news that’s directly relevant to one percent of the one percent: Richard Branson’s private space airline Virgin Galactic will accept bitcoins as a form of payment.

Yesterday Branson announced that a passenger due to be onboard one of next year’s suborbital flights paid for the $250,000 ticket using bitcoins. At the current conversion rate, it ran her 321 bitcoins, but given the virtual currency’s tendency to fluctuate wildly, there’s no knowing what that sum will be worth by the time Virgin Galactic’s first flights take off in August 2014.

“Virgin Galactic is a company looking into the future, so is Bitcoin. So it makes sense we would offer Bitcoin as a way to pay for your journey to space,” wrote Branson in a blog post, adding that he has invested in the digital currency himself. “Bitcoins aren’t yet formally recognized by governments as a currency but with some regulation I hope that it will become more widely accepted,” he continued.

There you have it, ladies and gentlemen. Richard Branson is pro-bitcoin.

[via BetaBeat]


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