Bitcoin Accepted by Virgin Galactic as Future Currency

Bitcoin is a semi-anonymous, decentralized digital currency built on an open source protocol that was released by a pseudonymous programmer, back in January 2009, though trading isn’t government-regulated.

Right from the launch, Bitcoin has seen many ups and downs including the FBI crackdown against "Silk Road" and its chief operative, Ross Ulbricht; who is the single largest Bitcoin share holder.

But with the support from open digital currency advocates, the idea keep sailing to the success, with consistent upward trend of Bitcoin value against USD.

Now, Richard Branson has expressed his believe in Bitcoin as the billionaire has announced that his commercial space startup Virgin Galactic is starting to accept payment from future astronauts in this virtual currency.

Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson is an English business tycon and investor, best known as the founder of Virgin Group, which comprises more than 400 companies. Richard's first business venture was a magazine called Student at the age of 16.

It’s enthralled many fans as it permits person-to-person payments without the fees typically charged by payments processors. Bitcoin is now accepted by organizations including WordPress and Reddit Inc., but Branson is undoubtedly the highest-profile businessman to endorse the currency.

Branson has posted in a blog post on the Virgin site:

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. For people who can afford to invest a little in bitcoin.

A US Senate hearing has put bitcoin firmly in the mainstream and has gathered fresh support from countries that tend to fall in line with America’s financial regulatory regime.

The price of a single bitcoin has quadrupled in the past 30 days, with Chinese being among the most enthusiastic buyers.

Bitcoin had its beginnings in 2009, when an individual or group going under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto published a paper laying out the idea.

A range of businesses accept the currency. A California Lamborghini dealership sold a $103,000 Tesla to a Florida man for 91.4 bitcoin, the Review-Journal reported, and a Canadian man listed his Alberta home for the bitcoin equivalent of $405,000.

The currency hit a watermark when Bank of America Merrill Lynch said this month that one bitcoin could have a maximum value of $1,300, or more than the price of an ounce of gold. A bitcoin on Friday was valued at about $870, up from $10 in January.

It is a way of sending money electronically in an instant at low cost and is not regulated by a Central Bank. It eliminates the need to funnel money through third parties such as banks or card payment processors.