We all know that Bitcoin has class. But now it seems to be picking up a great deal of culture as well. While the St Petersburg Museum of Natural History might seem like an unlikely place to find a celebration of technology like Bitcoin this is not your normal natural history museum. Featuring exhibits like the History of Flight and Little Cooperstown: The History of Baseball the sights are definitely eclectic. The Museum will be using BitPay as a payment platform which will allow customers to use Bitcoin for payment and convert instantly to dollars if the merchant wants this. Payments are usually made daily to either the merchants Bitcoin wallet or bank account

The time is perfect to coincide with the newly renamed “Bitcoin Bowl” that will be played at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg. This game is an NCAA sanctioned preseason college football game that has been played in St. Petersburg since 2008. The game was named for various sponsors over the years including Magic Jack and Beef O’Grady’s. The BitPay sponsorship and new name was announced on June 18th, 2014. There are also currently about 50 merchants in the Tampa/St. Petersburg area that accept Bitcoin, including restaurants, bars, retail merchants and service providers.

The St. Petersburg Museum of Natural History is the first museum in the state of Florida to accept Bitcoin donations. Admittance fees are $15 with discounts for Senior, Military, Children, and Student discounts available and the hours are Monday-Saturday from 10am until 5pm and on Sunday from 1pm until 5pm. Exhibits feature more than 30,000 artifacts, including a 3,000 year old mummy and a two-headed calf. Both guided and schools tours are available as are group rates. Located at 335 Second Avenue NE in St. Petersburg it has been serving south Florida residents for nearly a century. Rui Farias, Museum Director said in a press release:

“We expect the Bitcoin Bowl to bring many more visitors to St. Petersburg – and, of course, the Museum of History. We look forward to supporting the push for other businesses to accept the online currency.”

There have been other museums recently that have begun accepting Bitcoin donations. In November of 2013 the American museum, better known as the Museum of Coastal Bend began accepting Bitcoins for donations, tours and gift shop purchases and apparently had four Bitcoin transactions on the first day of acceptance. If the Museum Director’s plan works however it is likely that the St. Petersburg Museum of Natural History will earn a great deal more than four transactions on the days surrounding the football game as football fans with Bitcoin flood the city by the bay.

Images via St Petersburg Museum of Natural History

Did you enjoy this article? You may also be interested in reading these ones:

Download our sleek and user-friendly free iOS app so you never miss the latest stories!