By Chelsey Dulaney
Fortune and Health magazine readers have a new way to pay for
their subscriptions starting Tuesday: bitcoin.
Time Inc. has joined with with bitcoin wallet company Coinbase
to offer the digital currency as a subscription payment option for
magazines including Travel + Leisure and This Old House. The
partnership, which Time said it hopes to expand in the coming
months, is the latest sign that bitcoin's appeal is growing among
mainstream companies.
Launched in 2009, bitcoin is an electronic currency that is
created on computers and traded among people who store it in
digital wallets.
Despite volatility in the price of bitcoin over the past year,
more businesses have begun to accept bitcoin as payment for goods
and services, often hedging the risk of holding the digital
currency by quickly converting it into dollars.
Among the companies that have recently started accepting bitcoin
are computer maker Dell Inc. and travel-booking company Expedia
Inc.
Microsoft Corp. also said this month that it had joined with
with Atlanta-based digital-currency payment processor BitPay to
allow customers to use bitcoin when using their online Microsoft
accounts for certain products. Microsoft is expecting to see growth
in bitcoin-based purchases.
Write to Chelsey Dulaney at Chelsey.Dulaney@wsj.com
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