Buying music just updated to version 2.0 for a local music-sharing company.
Gainesville-based startup Grooveshark is now accepting bitcoin as a form of payment.
This popular cryptocurrency can be used alongside usual payment methods such as Visa, MasterCard and PayPal to pay for online monthly and yearly subscriptions.
Co-founder and CEO of Grooveshark Sam Tarantino wrote in an email that he believes in Bitcoin as a long-term currency of the future and wants to make sure that Grooveshark is helping push its adoption.
“If merchant acceptance reaches 75%+ than I think we could see more and more of the population start using it as a primary payment method,” he said.
President of the UF Entrepreneurship Club Erick Rodriguez, a 20-year-old UF management junior, said Bitcoin has the upper hand over companies like PayPal because it has no transaction fees and adds a layer of anonymity to all transactions.
“International payments are made easier because bitcoins aren’t tied to any country or subject to any regulation,” Rodriguez said. “However, some drawbacks about Bitcoin are the digital wallets bitcoins are stored in, which are not protected by FDIC insurance and are susceptible to hacking.”
Sean Treiser, a 20-year-old UF economics junior, said many online companies are now accepting bitcoin.
“Paying with bitcoin is a large investment,” Treiser said, “so a student who would use bitcoin should be pretty serious about trading.”
[A version of this story ran on page 1 on 7/17/2014 under the headline "Grooveshark membership can now be paid with Bitcoin"]
