Tesla Model S Sells —for 91.4 Bitcoins

Plus a police chief is now getting paid in the virtual currency
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 6, 2013 10:07 AM CST
Tesla Model S Sells —for 91.4 Bitcoins
This June 22, 2012 file photo shows a Tesla Model S outside the Tesla factory in Fremont, Calif.   (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)

Bitcoin continues to inch toward the mainstream: First a university offered students the option of paying tuition in the digital currency; now a Newport Beach Lamborghini dealer has opened its doors to Bitcoin business. This week it sold a pre-owned Tesla Model S for 91.4 Bitcoins, delivered via Bitpay payment service, the Daily Dot reports. In other Bitcoin news:

  • The town of Vicco, Kentucky, will now pay its police chief in the virtual currency, after he officially made the request last month, the Hazard Herald reports. We've "done a checkup on it, and that's the way he wants [to be] paid, and that's the way the city is going to pay him," the city commissioner says. "We just want to be on top of things, and up-and-coming and more progressive as a city," the mayor adds.
  • Meanwhile, China has restricted its banks from using Bitcoin—"not a currency in the real meaning of the word," it says—despite the country's big demand for it. The move will "protect the status of the renminbi as the statutory currency, prevent risks of money laundering, and protect financial stability," a notice read, per the New York Times. Private citizens can do whatever they want with the currency, however, "provided they assume the risks themselves."
Speaking of Bitcoin issues, a scammer may have stolen $100 million worth of Bitcoins. (More bitcoin stories.)

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