Working for the Yankee dollar? Not Jon Fitch.
The former top welterweight contender in UFC will face off against Yushin Okami tonight (Sat., Oct. 17, 2015) at World Series of Fighting 24 in Mashantucket, Conn. He's hoping to bring home not only the belt but a few extra bitcoins.
Wait, what?
Yes, Fitch revealed during an interview with inverse.com that he's the first mixed martial artist to get paid in cryptocurrency, a digital currency that operates independently of a central banking system.
But, why?
"After the 2008 financial collapse, I was left under $180,000 on my condo in San Jose. I didn't want to keep supporting people who kind of make those things happen. So I started playing around with cryptocurrency. Now I see all the possible things it can be used for. Especially the blockchain and the technology behind that," said Fitch.
The appeal of bitcoin and MMA for Fitch is that both are an international market. And with so many international fighters trying to get paid in different currencies and exchange rates, there can be a delay in payment and a deduction in earnings.
Cryptocurrencies aren't immune to the same deflationary problems of a centralized banking system, meaning you can lose money based on the value of what is essentially a currency stock. But Fitch says he doesn't put all his bitcoins in one currency basket.
"Like I said, never put more into it than you can lose. But no, I never really worried too much about it because the things you read about, why they think it's worrying or whatever... One of the reasons the price came down, I think, was the adaptation. More stores, more shops taking bitcoin directly and they're converting it immediately. So they're always going to take whatever price is on the exchange, so that's going to drive the price down."
Anybody else use a digital currency to get paid like Fitch? Or do you keep your money buried in the backyard like most normal people?
Sound off in the comments!