Now Buy A Home With Bitcoin

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In June this year, Latin American country El Salvador made history as the first country to name Bitcoin legal tender. 

Currently, millions of dollars of remittances to Latin America are being done using cryptocurrencies and this widespread use and acceptance is pushing all kinds of businesses to accept cryptocurrency as payment. 

Why should real estate be an exception?

Bezos Backed Proptech App Says Aye To Bitcoin

Per Bloomberg, La Haus, a Latin American proptech startup backed by Bezos Expeditions, recently announced that Bitcoin for real estate transactions are now welcome.

The tech startup, which allows users to purchase homes through an app, will allow home buyers to pay with the digital currency, starting with a housing development in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. 

It will eventually open the rest of its inventory of more than 80,000 properties to Bitcoin. 

Zooming In

To enable seamless crypto payments by home buyers, La Haus is tying up with Los Angeles-based payment processor OpenNode. 

With OpenNode's tech, La Haus' customers can transact both on-chain and over the Lightning Network, which is designed to make purchases quicker and easier. 

La Haus will act as an intermediary, paying the sellers in fiat.

Any Downsides?

One potential drawback to using bitcoin for such transfers? Notorious volatility. Despite that, bitcoin is actually more stable than certain Latin American countries’ fiat currencies. 🙈

Also, analysts expect Latin American remittances to become blockchain’s most mature payments application over the next five years.