Los Angeles-based Caruso Properties is now allowing its tenants to pay rent with Bitcoin cryptocurrency. It’s the first to adopt the technology in the real estate industry, accepting Bitcoin for both residential and retail rents.
Caruso Properties, one of the largest real estate and hospitality companies in the United States, has partnered with Gemini, a cryptocurrency exchange and custodian headquartered in New York.
“It’s not about the next year or five years,” company founder and CEO Rick Caruso said in a statement last week. Caruso said he’s taking a long-term bet on cryptocurrency and he believes it’s here to stay.
Understanding Cryptocurrency
Bitcoin was created by Satoshi Nakamoto, a pseudonymous person or team who outlined the technology in a 2008 white paper, according to Coinbase.com. Essentially, Bitcoin is a digital currency that allows for secure peer-to-peer transactions on the internet.Unlike Venmo and PayPal services, which rely on the traditional financial system for permission to transfer money on existing credit and debit accounts, Bitcoin is decentralized. That means any two people anywhere in the world can send Bitcoin to each other without involving a bank, government, or other institution.
Every Bitcoin transaction ever made is tracked by a blockchain, similar to bank ledgers or a log of customers’ funds coming and going from the bank. Unlike a bank’s ledger, however, Bitcoin’s blockchain is distributed across the entire network. Therefore, no one company, country, or third party is in control of it, and anyone can become part of the network.
