SACRAMENTO, CA — Ships and Trips Travel, an award-winning Sacramento travel agency with over 13 years in business and 115 travel professionals is the latest company to join the many merchants now accepting Bitcoin.

Last year proved to be a defining year for Bitcoin as prices rose and more businesses began accepting the digital currency. For the most part, Bitcoins are used to buy online goods and services, but there are still plenty of businesses looking to fill the gap and provide services for the growing Bitcoin community.

Company spokesperson Matt Risse, also partner at Ships and Trips Travel , says Bitcoin is a great technological advancement and by partnering with Bitpay they are able to extend their wide range of travel services to cater to the Bitcoin community.

“We want our customers to be happy”, says Risse. “For awhile Bitcoin was something to question, but with Bitcoin now being accepted by so many businesses — including the Sacramento Kings, it’s obvious to see the demand. And Bitcoin enthusiasts are not shy about what they want to see. We’ve had several people ask if we accept Bitcoin, so we decided to make it happen.”

The travel industry has been slow to adopt Bitcoin, with some of the more notable examples being Virgin Galactic, who began accepting Bitcoin for space travel in November of last year. The interest in using Bitcoin for travel first gained ground through a documentary launched on Kickstarter called “Life On Bitcoin”, where newlyweds Becky and Austin Craig chronicled their lives for 90 days, using only Bitcoin to pay for what they needed to survive. Even with the exposure and press gained through their adventure, Bitcoin travel options are still very limited.

Ships and Trips Travel hopes to accelerate Bitcoin adoption in the travel industry by accepting Bitcoin for cruises, vacation packages and honeymoons. This makes using Bitcoin for travel as easy as using “fiat”. Ships and Trips Travel are long time partners with 27 of the largest cruise lines in the world; including Carnival, Disney Cruise Lines, and Viking River Cruises. Their other partners include hotels and resorts at destinations around the world. In other words, with Ships and Trips Travel now accepting Bitcoin, there is a slim chance that you will have trouble using Bitcoin to travel anywhere in the world.

Source: http://btcnews.com.au/china-lift-bitcoin-ban.html

Originally posted 2014-02-05 05:06:58.

On Thursday, January 23, 2014, Tiger Direct announced they would start accepting bitcoin as an alternative payment method. While Tiger Direct isn’t the first major online retailer to start accepting bitcoins, they are the first major online electronics retailer to do so.

The Tiger Direct website offers over 200,000 products and is a popular shopping destination for PC users. According to Steven Leeds, the marketing chief at Tiger Direct, “With individuals building their own high-powered PCs with parts offered on our site to mine Bitcoins, it’s a logical fit.”

Tiger Direct has already started utilizing this acceptance as an opportunity to market their Bitcoin mining catalog. Tiger Direct has also partnered with AMD in order to offer a variety of mining-friendly graphic cards.

Since their Thursday announcement, Tiger Direct has processed more than $500,000 in Bitcoin payments. These total was spent on over 2500 separate orders. According to Tiger Direct, $250,000 of that was processed in the first 17 hours following their announcement. Overall, the company processes approximately $2 billion in purchases each year.

While they won’t be able to examine the full impact of accepting bitcoins for another three months when their quarterly numbers are posted, the initial reaction is certainly positive. The announcement itself also provided huge boost in web traffic from both their social media networks and the number of blogs that shared the announcement.

Overstock.com was the first major online retailer to start accepting bitcoin as an alternative payment option. There were rumors that electronics website, Newegg, maybe the next to follow suit, but they have yet to make any announcements. Other online companies accepting bitcoin as a payment method include Reddit and OKCupid.

Many global financial leaders have voiced their disapproval of the new cryptocurrency, but their warnings appear to be falling on deaf ears as the popularity of bitcoin continues to grow. It will be interesting to see what the future holds. There is little doubt more online retailers will start accepting bitcoins in order to maintain their competitive edge.

Source: http://www.josic.com/tiger-direct-processes-500000-in949-bitcoin-payments

Originally posted 2014-02-02 05:40:35.

Barnes Real Estate School (www.charlesbarnes.com) announces it is now accepting Bitcoin as a form of payment from students.

Students can enroll in any online or in-house real estate or home inspection course offered by Barnes Real Estate School and have the option to pay using Bitcoin.

“Bitcoin gained popularity in 2013 and we believe 2014 will be a banner year for the virtual currency. We have always been on the technological cutting edge and we plan to continue to be on the forefront by accepting Bitcoin”, states Mack Barnes, Director and Vice-President of Barnes Real Estate School.

Bitcoin is a peer-peer virtual currency that was released in 2009. As of February 1, 2014, the current valuation of 1 Bitcoin is $808.22, there are currently 12,301,500 Bitcoins in existence, and the current market cap is $9,942,318,330. Currently there are 25 Bitcoins created every 10 minutes and those new coins can be obtained through mining. There will only be 21 million Bitcoins in existence.

Source: http://www.international.to/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=36328:first-real-estate-school-to-accept-bitcoin&catid=323:prlog&Itemid=479

Originally posted 2014-02-01 06:08:14.