Gregory Simon wanted to move to a tropical paradise. So unlike most of us, he decided to move there — using bitcoin. Simon managed to buy a 0.3-acre plot of land in the Paradise Bay area of San Juan del Sur in Nicaragua using the digital currency.
“By using BTC we were able to complete the transaction quickly with no need to involve banks or other third party intermediaries. I don’t know yet what the house design will be, my girlfriend and I will be designing it together in the coming months,” said Simon in a statement to CoinDesk.
Having quit his job in the banking industry in 2012, Simon says that “The current banking system is beyond immoral. It takes advantage of the most helpless and poor people on earth.”
Upon quitting his job, Simon bought bitcoin, seeing promise in it:
“I believe bitcoin has the potential to revolutionize the money industry to a degree few people to date fully understand.”
But in order to get the property, Simon had to do some convincing, but in the end, made the down payment on the land on the 3rd of December — paying off the rest in the weeks following.
As more and more individuals come to the realization as to just how much of a cut third party institutions take in transactions like this, they turn to a direct system like bitcoin.
Whether or not the trend will catch on remains to be seen. ()