Photo by Freddie Collins on Unsplash
Living in Pittsburgh for most of my life has allowed me to be at the forefront of some of the coolest innovations in technology. I’ve been in a self-driving car, experienced a virtual reality through a headset, seen robots do more than I ever thought was possible and… owned a bitcoin? Unless you’ve been under a rock these past couple of months, you’ve probably heard of the crypto-currency taking the world by storm. What started out as a tool for anonymous payments in the black market has evolved into a real-world asset that is being adapted by institutionalized sectors and the general mainstream.
But does bitcoin have any future in the housing market? More and more properties are popping up on the market advertising that they can be purchased with bitcoin. From different lofts in New York to mansions in London, the array of real estate you can purchase for bitcoin is pretty remarkable. While bitcoin might be the future, it is currently one of the most volatile assets in the market so is it even worthwhile to sell one’s house for Bitcoin?
Marketing Magic. It seems that anything associated with bitcoin is suddenly under the media spotlight. A 17-million-pound mansion in Notting Hill was posted for bitcoin sale and within a week the listing had 15 viewings. Even a small house in England garnered media attention when it was posted for bitcoin sale. This might be great and all from a marketing perspective but the logistics of scaling this is very problematic. In the end people that buy bitcoin are hoping its USD price goes up, so they can eventually sell it back. It’s extremely hard to tell what the future stores. For all we know a crypto-currency designed specifically for the real-estate/mortgage world could arise and change the game forever...