Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk announced on Twitter that Tesla now accepts Bitcoin as car payment in the US.
The company’s US website now offers the option to pay using cryptocurrency, alongside traditional card payment. Musk also announced that this option will be available to other countries “later this year.”
Musk also offered details on how Tesla will handle cryptocurrency.
“Tesla is using only internal & open source software & operates Bitcoin nodes directly,” he said in a followup tweet, “Bitcoin paid to Tesla will be retained as Bitcoin, not converted to fiat currency.”
The bitcoin payment process is posted in the FAQ on the website, where it addresses two options for initiating payment. One is scanning a QR code, and the second is copying and pasting its bitcoin wallet address.
It also notes that any attempt to send other forms of cryptocurrency to its wallet means that it “will not receive the transaction and it will likely result in a loss of funds for you.”
According to Tesla’s bitcoin payment terms and conditions, its cars will continue to be priced in US dollars, and customers who choose to will pay the equivalent value in bitcoin. Tesla estimates that a $100 deposit paid today equals 0.00183659 BTC, for example.
Tesla’s terms and conditions also emphasize that customers practice caution when inputting both the bitcoin address and payable amount. In all capital letters, the company states that “bitcoin transactions cannot be reversed” and “if you input the bitcoin address incorrectly, your bitcoin may be irretrievably lost or destroyed.”
Customers are also responsible for all bitcoin transaction fees that come along with their purchase. Another important thing to note is that despite bitcoin payments take less than an hour to complete, there is still the possibility that it can extend “one day or more.”
And because of bitcoin’s unpredictability, the company also warns that any refunds made “might be significantly less” than the value at the time of purchase.
Over a month ago, Tesla announced its plan to start accepting bitcoin as payment in its annual 10-K report, where the company also said that it will be adding this option in the “near future.”
This news sent bitcoin’s price to over $43,000, a record all-time high.
