Elon Musk broke the news that will make many happy that Tesla has added Bitcoin as a payment mode for US customers. This news did not get many by surprise as it had given a hint by applying with SEC earlier in the year.
In addition to Tesla accepting Bitcoin as a form of payment, CEO Elon Musk also revealed that the company would be operating Bitcoin nodes directly through internal and open-source software. That means it might not hold on to any Bitcoin it gets but somewhat covert it to fiat immediately.
This is not the first time that Tesla is engaging with Bitcoin. Back in early Feb, Tesla purchased Bitcoin worth $1.5 billion, according to an SEC filing. For a start, the option to buy a Tesla using Bitcoin will only be available for US customers, but that is bound to change with time.
Elon Musk emphasized that it does not plan to use Bitcoin as a transactional medium rather than an investment tool. He clarified that Bitcoin paid to Tesla would be retained as Bitcoin and not converted to fiat currency.
As mentioned earlier, Tesla is planning to use open software to run Bitcoin nodes. This will help the company enter into a network of miners. This is a group o peer to peer operators who host and synchronize the Bitcoin blockchain.
To support Bitcoin payments, there is already a Bitcoin widget on the website on the checkout options. You can, however, only see this if you are using a US-based IP address.
As expected, the move by Tesla to accept Bitcoin already pushed up the value of Bitcoin. Already on Wednesday, the price of Bitcoin increased by 2.9%, moving from $54,056 to $55,630 in a flash.
Tesla has added terms and conditions to clarify that Bitcoin is the only digital asset it accepts on its site as a mode of payment. That means that it exclusively accepts Bitcoin and not its derivatives, such as Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin SV. It is also not taking any other digital assets now. Tesla’s bitcoin digital wallet is only figured to accept Bitcoin as a digital asset.
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