Yesterday it was announced that the Kings would be the first professional sports team to start accepting the virtual currency bitcoin for merchandise, tickets, and even concessions.  For bitcoin, this is a big step forward for its own legitimacy, as most retailers and merchants don't accept the currency due to its extreme volatility; One bitcoin was worth $13.51 on Jan. 1st, 2013.  That has gone all the way up to $1,165.90 and back down to $863.35 since then.

According the Wall Street Journal's report, the Kings are even being unorthodox in the way they're accepting bitcoin.  Most retailers who accept bitcoin do so by having the bitcoin processors give them actual cash so as to not take on any of that volatility.  Vivek, meanwhile, is willing to accept bitcoins for the Kings account.

In my personal opinion, the Kings are protected from risk partly because the people who would likely pay for Kings merchandise in bitcoin probably weren't going to be paying in dollars in the first place, and with (currently) limited options on where to spend bitcoins, the Kings have cornered the market on professional sports merchandise.  It's just one more way the Kings are trying to create a global, rather than simply local, fanbase.

Sacramento's new ownership is breathing fresh life into a franchise that had gone stale, and it's nice to see that they're determined to not only improve the product on the court but also off of it.