On Wednesday, British cryptocurrency mining company Argo Blockchain revealed that CEO Peter Wall is now the first executive of a publicly traded company to take their entire salary in Bitcoin (BTC).<\/p>\n
In a February operational update, the company \u2014 which trades on the London Stock Exchange under the ticker ARB \u2014 said that as of Monday, Wall began taking his salary in the cryptocurrency and that \u201cAny other Argo team members may choose to be paid in Bitcoin for part of or all of their salaries.\u201d<\/p>\n
In an interview with Cointelegraph, Wall said that the decision was an obvious one for Argo, which mined 129 BTC last month and currently has 599 BTC on the books. <\/p>\n
\u201cI actually woke up in the middle of the night and asked myself, \u2018why am I getting paid in fiat?\u2019\u201d said Wall. \u201c\u2018Why don\u2019t we just start paying ourselves in Bitcoin?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Wall pointed to NFL player Russell Okung as an additional source of inspiration. Late last year, certain publications reported that Okung was drawing a portion of his salary in Bitcoin; in reality, he was using a service to convert his wages.<\/p>\n
By contrast, Argo is in fact paying Wall in Bitcoin straight from the company\u2019s coffers. Wall reported \u201cstrong\u201d interest from employees as well, and he anticipates a \u201cstrong uptake\u201d on the offer. Employee salaries will continue to be denominated in fiat, and the conversion rate will be calculated daily using Satstreet\u2019s exchange rate.<\/p>\n
Employees aren’t the only ones interested. Wall joked that some shareholders have inquired about dividend payments in BTC\u00a0\u2014 a feat that may be too much of a legal hurdle to clear \u2014 and said some other company heads have applauded the move. <\/p>\n
Wall said that Bitcoin is an ideal way to take at least a portion of salary, given its utility as a store of value and its provable scarcity. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s an evolving payment structure for how people are getting paid out, and we\u2019re happy to be at the forefront of pushing things in that direction,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
He anticipates other companies \u2014 even giants like Google \u2014 will offer cryptocurrency salary options to employees within \u201cthree to five years.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLong term there\u2019s absolutely no doubt that we will be using cryptocurrencies in our daily lives across all the transactions we do everyday.\u201d\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n