Finland Times

Martin Gauss, AirBaltic Chief Executive Officer, said that AirBaltic is the world's top 10 most innovative airlines, therefore introducing bitcoin as means of payment is innovative approach to the core focus of the company -- to serve its customers.

To pay with bitcoin will be possible on AirBaltic website: www.airbaltic.com that displays prices in euro.

When paying in bitcoin the prices will be automatically converted into euro according to the current exchange rate by Bitpay, a third-party payment processor.

This service is to be available for the cheapest tickets only called AirBaltic Basic Class.

Introduced in 2009, bitcoin is accepted by such companies as WordPress.com, Overstock.com, Expedia, Dell.

Meanwhile, Bank of Latvia appealed to the residents not to use "Bitcoin", as its buying and exchanging carries risks, the same position took Financial and Capital Market Commission, LETA reported.

Deniss Filipovs, Financial Analyst of the Bank of Latvia, stated that "Bitcoin" it is not issued by a central bank as legal tender with a guaranteed nominal value of currency. "Bitcoin" is not pegged to any country's currency, therefore it carries various risks, such as losing money during exchange process; consumers of "Bitcoin" are not protected by the EU regulation; stolen "Bitcoin" not possible to retrieve.

"Bitcoin" considered to be "virtual currency", yet it does not mean it has an official legal status. It can be used as a product or a means of trade if parties involved agree so.