World News for Students of English

02-04-2014 15:00

On the small Indonesian island of Bali, a big deal is going down, as a villa has been sold in what’s thought to be the largest Bitcoin transaction to date.

The two bedroom, two bathroom property, complete with private pool, was bought by an anonymous buyer in Texas with less than 1,000 bitcoin, which is the equivalent to roughly 600,000 U.S. dollars.

“I can’t tell you the exact amount, but it’s just short of 1000 bitcoins, which depending on the exchange rate, translates into about 600,000 U.S. dollars.”

Despite the digital currency not being regulated or accepted as legal tender, the deal was sealed in late February through BitPremier which is an exclusive bitcoin trading website for luxury goods.

“We’ve been referred to it by a family member, who has been dealing with bitcoins for the last two to three years so we thought we give it a try and see what happens. And that worked out to be pretty, pretty good for us. And you know, I know that it’s not a legal currency, I don’t really know if it ever will be, but I think the thing that has to happen right now is that the various governments, including the government of Indonesia, put the regulation in place and decide how they want to deal with this currency or this phenomenon.”

The Indonesian Central Bank said the villa sale did not violate its law, as it was done in U.S. dollars.

Difficult words: to date (until now), short of (less than), tender (bid), goods (products), phenomenon (event).