Sant’Agostino, an Italian auction house, is the first to let people bid and settle with bitcoin. Auctioneers determined it will be the first one to allow for bitcoin to enter into the realm of auctioning. This brings bitcoin into yet another aspect of commercial and economic life.
Also read: A Look at Five Different Cryptocurrency Hardware Wallets and Prices
A Geo TV article originally covered the story: “ROME: Italian auction house Sant’Agostino said Wednesday bidders at its next sale will be able to settle up in bitcoin, a world first according to the auctioneers.”
The First Items for Auction via Bitcoin Bidding
The auction is slated to sell roughly 600 items, which include furniture and other household objects. All of the items can be purchased with bitcoin via the bidding process. Furthermore, the following Sant’Agostino auction — which will include bidding on jewelry, watches, and art pieces — will also accept bitcoin as part of the settlement process.
Paying with the crypto currency will also be allowed at the following auction at the end of November which will feature paintings, jewelry and watches.
This means there could be a movement developing in this particular area of retail services, and spur more popularity for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
Previous Public Auctions Where Bitcoin Was Sold
However, even though this Sant’Agostino boasts the first “private” auction for items with bitcoin, there have been public auctions were bitcoin itself was auctioned off.
These auctions have not been held under positive circumstances, though. They have come into existence after government seized coins from someone they arrested. For instance, in the famous Silk Road case, many of the coins allegedly taken from Ross Ulbricht were publicly auctioned. News.Bitcoin.com covered the story:
“The last auction the government held was for the final blocks of the seized Silk Road coins. This particular sale also includes money coming from the Silk Road marketplace, with bitcoins seized from special agent Carl Force.”
The total amount of coins were 2,719, which include coins from the Silk Road and other cases. South Korea also recently held their first bitcoin auction of 216 coins, which were also taken from alleged criminals.
What do you think about private auction houses getting involved in bitcoin? Will we see even more auction houses and other private enterprises start getting into cryptocurrency? Let us know in the comments below!
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