The Winklevoss Twins Are Using Their Bitcoins to Go to Space

Seemingly determined never to miss out on the Next Big Thing again, the Winklevoss twins are fast becoming the moneyed poster boys for The Future.

Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss announced today in a blog post and tweet that they've bought a Virgin Galactic flight to space, and they paid for it in Bitcoin—of course.

Happy to announce that @winklevoss and I have used #bitcoin to become @virgingalactic astronauts number 700 and 701 http://t.co/JSruUeb0Kh

— Tyler Winklevoss (@tylerwinklevoss) March 5, 2014

Tickets for a seat on Virgin's SpaceShipTwo go for about $250,000—about 375 BTC, based on Bitcoin's current value, hovering around $640.

The twins are among the first passengers to fund their spaceflight in virtual currency since Richard Branson announced Virgin Galactic would start accepting Bitcoin payments in November, explaining that Galactic is "a bold entrepreneurial technology and is driving revolution—bitcoin is doing just the same.”

The Winklevoss brothers elucidated their reasons for becoming space tourists number 700 and 701 in a blog-post-cum-diatribe-on-human-exploration this morning on the Winklevoss Capital website.

"Bitcoin and Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic are two technologies that meaningfully represent our focus at Winklevoss Capital—the reduction of pain-points and friction in an effort to build a better world," wrote Tyler.

"It is in this vein that Cameron and I contemplate our tickets into space—as seed capital supporting a new technology that may forever change the way we travel, purchased with a new technology that may forever change the way we transact. Since their inceptions, Bitcoin and Virgin Galactic have been writing the next chapter in our history books."

But they're not just in it for the novelty. Later in the post Tyler writes that a spaceflight program like Virgin Galactic (SpaceX is inching closer to offering commercial flights, too) could help with things like emergency response and disaster relief, while virtual currency will make it easy to make charitable donations.

The Winklevii have been big Bitcoin supporters right out the gate. Their public appearances to preach the Bitcoin gospel have been a boon for the digital currency, and the brothers put their money where their mouths are: They purchased $11 million worth of BTC and invested another $1.5 million in Charlie Shrem's ill-fated BitInstant startup.

As for Virgin Galactic, with early seats going for as much as $4 million, the waiting list for the suborbital spaceflight is sprinkled with celebrities and millionaires: Justin Bieber, Ashton Kutcher, Stephen Hawking, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Leonardo DiCaprio, Katy Perry and so on.

Virgin plans to launch its rocket-powered commercial fleet, SpaceShipTwo, this year. Each ship can seat six passengers, and even with tickets at a cool 250 Gs apiece, hundreds have already signed up for the cosmic flight. At numbers 700 and 701 on the list, the Winklevoss twins will have a long time to wait before their crypto-purchase pays off. What will Bitcoin be worth then?