Japan Firm Joins Bitcoin Payment Clan

A company from Japan is set to start paying a part of its employees’ wages in Bitcoin. The company aims to gain a better understanding of the digital currency, claimed a spokeswoman on Friday. GMO Internet, which runs a number of web-related businesses such as finance, online advertising and internet infrastructure, will begin paying employees up to 100,000 yen ($890) monthly through Bitcoin. This is expected to commence from February next year. "Employees can receive salaries by Bitcoin if they want to," company spokeswoman Harumi Ishii told AFP. "We hope to improve our own literacy of virtual currency by actually using it," she said. Harumi then went on to say that the offer will be open to around 4,000 employees of the GMO group. The company started a Bitcoin trading and exchange business back in May of this year. Next month, GMO will join the “Bitcoin mining” business. This means that they will gain the right to receive new Bitcoins as a reward from helping to keep the network secure by approving transactions. 2017 has been an incredible year for Bitcoin, seeing its price rise from below $1,000 earlier this year to $17,000 this week. Image Sources: Flickr Flickr Sponsored by