Next thing you know we’ll be able to shoot people with video game guns.
An upscale car dealership in Costa Mesa, Calif., announced that it has sold a Tesla car using the Bitcoin digital currency.
A customer of the Lamborghini Newport Beach dealership recently used the online currency to buy a Tesla Model S sedan, the electric sedan made by billionaire investor Elon Musk, the dealership wrote on its blog,
The blog didn’t specify how much the Bitcoin-loving customer paid for his Model S — they can run up to $100,000 — or if he used the digital currency to cover for all or some of the purchase or lease price.
“Lamborghini Newport Beach is proud to announce that we are fully capable of accepting Bitcoin as payment for vehicles,” the dealership noted on the blog. “We are excited to be opening the door to this new currency.”
Martin Soto, who answered the phone at the dealership Thursday afternoon, confirmed the press release is real.
“It’s not a joke,” he said, adding he did not know any details of the deal.
Bitcoin is electronic money introduced in 2009 by a developer or group of developers going by the name of “Satoshi Nakamoto.” There are roughly 12 million Bitcoins in circulation, with a value of $11.4 billion, according to Bitcoin charts.
The currency is controversial, and uncertainty over its viability in the real world has resulted in large fluctuations in its value.
For example, Bitcoin’s value plunged more than 20 percent on Thursday to under $1,000 after it emerged that China’s central bank barred its financial industry from dealing with the currency.
On Wednesday, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan also bashed the online currency by questioning its value.
“You have to really stretch your imagination to infer what the intrinsic value of Bitcoin is,” he told Bloomberg TV. “ I haven’t been able to do it. Maybe somebody else can.”
Bitcoin has also attracted supporters like the Winklevoss twins, who famously sued Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, alleging he stole the idea for the social networking site from them. They recently told CNBC that Bitcoin should carry a total value of closer to $400 billion on the bet that it’s the perfect global currency.
Until now, skeptics have assumed that Bitcoin’s value would be relegated largely to the digital world, allowing owners to buy virtual gifts, for example.
The Tesla purchase — as evidence that the currency might have a fighting chance in the real world — is sure to send the currency higher.