Elon Musk Says Tesla Cars Can Now Be Bought With Bitcoin

Elon Musk has confirmed that Telsa vehicles in the United States can now be purchased by bitcoin, months after first mooting the idea.

Musk tweeted late Tuesday that it is now possible to buy Tesla vehicles in the US with bitcoin. The following support page on Tesla’s website explains how customers can pay for a Tesla using the digital currency.

In February Tesla had disclosed that it had purchased $1.5bn (£1.1bn) in bitcoin, and it said at the time it would soon accept payment in the cryptocurrency for new electric cars.

Bitcoin purchase

Musk also revealed that for those people living outside the United States, they would be able to buy a Tesla car with bitcoin “later this year.”

However, Musk did not mention which countries this would apply to.

Musk also noted that in order to accept the bitcoin payment, Tesla is using “internal” and “open source software.”

He added that Tesla “operates bitcoin nodes directly.”

It should be remembered that nodes are computers on bitcoin’s network that work to verify transactions and avoid the cryptocurrency from being spent twice.

Job titles

Last week Elon Musk changed his official title at Tesla to “Technoking”, and Zach Kirkhorn, the firm’s chief financial officer, is to be known officially as “Master of Coin”.

Both will also would retain their positions chief executive and chief financial officer at the company.

The cost of Tesla cars in the United Kingdom start from £38,000 (for the base Model 3).