3D Hubs, the world’s largest 3D printing community network, now supports Bitcoin.
Bitcoin, if by some strange reason you haven’t heard, is an alternative digital currency. It can be bought and sold on various online exchanges. It’s not dollars, euros, pounds or yen, but it used in the same way by an increasing number of web-based services. The key advantage of Bitcoin is that it provides the anonymity of cash in a digital form. Thus, you can purchase items without being tracked by sales systems, for example.
Somehow 3D Hubs using Bitcoin seems like a natural fit; Bitcoin is managed by a distributed set of servers acting together under a common digital protocol. Meanwhile, 3D Hubs is a distributed set of 3D printers acting together under a common framework.
It’s also likely that 3D Hubs clients, both print buyers and print operators, use Bitcoin more frequently than your typical consumers.
With this announcement, 3D Hubs buyers and sellers will be able to perform transactions using only Bitcoins – no “real” currencies will be required.
3D Hubs has chosen BitPay as their Bitcoin payment provider, who will provide the nuts and bolts of Bitcoin transactions. This is an important choice for 3D Hubs, as there have been instances of fraudulent Bitcoin providers in the past. BitPay appears to be one of the more reputable organizations.
Via 3D Hubs
