From Buying Pizza To Buying A Condo in Manhattan. Bitcoin is Fast Evolving

[htsy585]

Real estate tycoon Ben Shaoul has sold a retail condo in Manhattan’s prestigious Upper East Side for $15.3 million in Bitcoin (BTC). The news was reported by New York real estate magazine The Real Deal on Nov. 1.

Shaoul — who is president of the Magnum Real Estate Group — sold the 11,400-square-foot property to a Taiwan-based entity “Affluent International LCC,” according to a person familiar with the deal.

https://ct.com/80eu

[batang_bitcoin]

I've heard about this news and it's an amazing one. This shows that bitcoin is good for every transaction that we want to commit. It's not just for those beliefs about its bad past but we're now living in the modern days where bitcoin is good as the fiat as payment.
We're actually going to see more of this in the near future and thanks to those media that they're spreading the good news. Although sometimes they are the ones that spread bad news about bitcoin.

[julerz12]

It's one of the things that most people here dreamed for, adoption. For BTCitcoin to be accepted as payment for a real estate property is one step closer on making that dream a reality. Small trades have already happened countless times before but its the big ones like this that makes the buzz with the media, which in turn would also be a great exposure not only for BTCitcoin but for the rest of cryptocurrencies as well. It's only a matter of time 'til everyone would opt on receiving BTCtc and other cryptocurrencies rather than the traditional fiat.

[Ailmand]

This could only happen if both the buyer and seller are familiar and would agree to transact using bitcoin. I've read a lot of people who are buying a house using cryptocurrency and it is great to hear that cryptocurrency is being utilized this way by some people. I really hope that time will come that you can use bitcoin anywhere from paying bills, buying equipments and goods, payment for services and even daily bus fair and etc.

[NathanJB]

Bitcoin has gone from a mere experiment to a real money. When Bitcoin was used to buy two boxes of pizza many years ago, it was done for the sake of experimenting or trying to show that Bitcoin could actually be used for buying stuff instead of using fiat. From then on, Bitcoin has grown to be both a currency and asset, but more of an asset nowadays. But this new transaction proves two points, that Bitcoin is not anymore the old experiment. It is a real currency that can buy properties worth millions in USD. And second, that Bitcoin is still a currency more than just an asset.

[crisanto01]

Bitcoin really evolves very fast, imagine, from captcha payment and now we are all aiming to have at least 1 Bitcoin that we will hold until it became million dollar worth. Even here in our countries, 2 years ago when you speak with your neighbors about it, they don't have any idea at all, and now I couldn't believe, they are also holding some Bitcoins and altcoins, thinking they are not updated in the internet world.

[bitzizzix]

This is what is called bitcoin is the future and it's one proof that the development of bitcoin will gradually become multi-functional as an alternative payment tool such as fiat currency.
but in my opinion bitcoin cannot completely replace fiat currency and both will function to complement each other and when in regions or stores that do not provide payment using bitcoin can use fiat currency, and this is very good news to convince non-believers in Bitcoin and can introduce bitcoin to those who don't know it evenly and need to know it.

[Kyraishi]

Bit of a dream coming true. Hard to imagine being used for a lot of high volume transactions instead of the "safer" option, which would be fiat currencies.

I wonder, how did they set the exchange rate? Did they confirm the price of BTC and tether it to that price, while the other party took a couple of hours/days to make the payment, or did the payment have to be instant.

I would love to see a property or car contract where the deal was done via BTC...

[Wind_FURY]

Is the real estate tycoon hedging his portfolio from real estate to Bitcoin? He can accept fiat payment, but why Bitcoin?

[Kakmakr]

I do not understand why people get so exited about things like this, after all..... Bitcoin is Money and it should be used as a currency to buy anything, no matter how expensive it is. We are trading Billions of Dollars daily on Bitcoin exchanges and nobody is jumping up and down about that.  

Bitcoin can be used for the payment for any goods or services, if the two parties agree to it, the problem is when those bitcoins are immediately converted to Fiat or if this transaction is done via payment processors. I can pay for something with cattle if I wanted to and nobody can stop me.  

[Herbert2020]

this looks exciting and all for bitcoin believers around here but i can't help but wonder about the tax implications of doing something like this in New York. i am not really familiar with NY state laws but since US hasn't accepted bitcoin as a currency but only as a commodity, doesn't it mean that he now has to pay a gigantic tax on his $15.3 million purchase of a commodity?

[qiman]

It is amazing in the last ten years how much BTC has grown and I wish I had taken part in purchasing a decent amount of Bitcoin when it was much cheaper but we had some bad luck in that regard but KUDOS to all the early adopters who did very well and were able to accumulate large holdings and purchase luxury goods and assets like lambos and real estate. Of course if I had big money in Bitcoin I would rather purchase the real estate in order to make and procure some passive income as the lambo would depreciate in value and be a liability.

[MURONDI]

whether bitcoin is suitable as a payment instrument while the value is unstable and very volatile, I think the seller and the buyer already know the risk about bitcoin, maybe in the future the value of bitcoin will become more stable.

[stompix]

We have seen houses and flats and mansions bough for bitcoins for a long time, this is hardly news.

But, reading the article, this could really be news if he deal will ever be made:

http://UK Real Estate Firm Accepts Bitcoin for Sale of 150-Year-Old Church

Just think about the impact of the news, mainly for the Christian world and our point of view.
A church is sold for bitcoin, forget flats, penthouses, malls or anything else, a church!!!!!  

When Bitcoin was used to buy two boxes of pizza many years ago, it was done for the sake of experimenting or trying to show that Bitcoin could actually be used for buying stuff instead of using fiat.

First, there was no experiment, the man really wanted a pizza.
Second, Laszlo didn't pay for the pizza directly, he paid Jercos 10k BTC and Jercos ordered the pizza with his credit card and had it delivered to his home.

[Upgrade00]

...

I agree with your take, bitcoin has monetary value and enough liquidity that it can be converted easily to fiat, and with the privacy measures of wallets it's very secure if you know how to protect yourself. The only issue is the volatility which scare people away from using it or prompts them to use a payment processor. So those that actually sell properties directly through bitcoins must be willing to hodl and navigate through the market, hence becoming investors.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

That link scares me, so I'm not going to click on it and I wish OP had quoted the article or at least commented on it more--but I do appreciate mentioning this deal, as I find it interesting.

I wonder if the buyer was an old-school bitcoin whale who'd mined bitcoin in the early days or if he/she made a huge profit in one of the big booms bitcoin has gone through.  I can't imagine someone would purchase that much bitcoin just to buy some real estate, since it certainly isn't the standard way of paying for it.  Guess I'll never know, but it is kinda cool that someone made a purchase like this.

Real estate in Manhattan is so overpriced, however.  I love NYC but I couldn't imagine living there unless I had an important Wall Street job, which I never will.  And the standard apartments that common folks can afford are like shoeboxes.  You'd have to spend a hell of a lot of bitcoin just to rent one of those, and I don't think it's worth it. 

We have seen houses and flats and mansions bough for bitcoins for a long time, this is hardly news.

Granted, I don't really follow crypto news all that closely, but I haven't heard about too many real estate deals involving bitcoin as the payment method.  It certainly isn't common.

[bitcampaign]

whether bitcoin is suitable as a payment instrument while the value is unstable and very volatile, I think the seller and the buyer already know the risk about bitcoin, maybe in the future the value of bitcoin will become more stable.

I don't think bitcoin can be a stable coin, prices are not volatile but let's get out of the unusual mind of people posting here, they might want to sell assets because they want to buy lots of bitcoin, so they sell their assets and hold bitcoin now

[bitsurfer2014]

This is a proof that Bitcoin could  be applied to almost any industry that has to do payment transactions though we should not assume this is going to be the trend now since the real estate industry is just beginning to tap this emerging technology and there will be people who would resist change that could hinder its adoption.

Though its a rare case of a prime real estate being sold for Bitcoin, it is still a boon to the crypto industry yet I think it will be years away before crypto would be the medium of exchange in the real estate sector.

Now I was wondering whatever happened to those crypto projects focusing on the real estate industry since I've never heard any  news from them lately.

[Gotumoot]

This is the power of bitcoin that we cannot control, As more and more big companies continue to accept bitcoin, As well as popular personalities in various industries that will have an interest in investing in bitcoin. And it is certain that the government will see the importance of bitcoin and blockchain as well.

[hahahafr]

At last someone got the balls to use such a huge amount of Bitcoins for a purchase. I must be honest i am quite surprised to see this even though it helps in the adoption of bitcoin as a mode of payment. But i never imagined it would be with such a huge amount of coins especially when the value of bitcoin is now known all over the entire world. We are not back in the days when bitcoin was worth nothing and yet that dude used thousands of bitcoin all for a pizza.