Bitcoins are slowly making their way from a small online group of users to more mainstream acceptance. Now, the NBA's Sacramento Kings will be the first major sports team to accept them as payment.
The Kings announced Thursday they will now accept bitcoin payments for tickets, merchandise and food starting March 1. (Via The Verge)
Obviously, the Kings will still accept cash and credit cards, too. But for the tech savvy people out there, this is just another step forward for bitcoins going more widespread.
Earlier this month, Overstock.com became the first major online retailer to accept the digital currency. Reddit, OkCupid, WordPress and various other websites also accept it.
And there are even places where you can trade your bitcoins for cold, hard cash. (Via MtGox)
So, what is a bitcoin?
"Bitcoin is the first decentralized digital currency. Bitcoins are digital coins you can send through the Internet. ... The fees are much lower, you can use them in every country, your account cannot be frozen, and there are no prerequisites or arbitrary limits." (Via YouTube / weusecoins)
Even though bitcoins appear to be in the infancy stage of hitting the mainstream market, it's not much of a surprise the currency is catching on with the Sacramento Kings.
The Sacramento Bee points out the leader of the team's ownership group Vivek Ranadive made his fortunes running tech giant TIBCO Software and has said he wants the Kings to be one of the most tech savvy in the league. (Via YouTube / TIBCOSoftware)
And ESPN's Darren Rovell tweets, "Kings owner @vivek told me team is experimenting with Google Glass to have coaches use it during games."
But a writer for GigaOM says this Bitcoin news isn't very special. "For now ... the Sacramento Kings announcement likely represents more of a marketing stunt ... than a milestone for the young currency."
The Kings are currently 14-23 on the season and sit in 13th place in the Western Conference.
