Is it loonie to collect your salary in bitcoin?

A small but growing and surprising number of workers are rejecting Canadian dollar salaries for bitcoin, according to a Waterloo, Ont., payroll firm.

Wagepoint CEO Shrad Rao said his firm came up with the cryptocurrency payment option in November last year as a side project and did not expect any take-up.

BNN Video Apr. 14 2014, 5:08 PM EDT

But as the online currency gained popularity this year, he said, employees from 10 firms have signed up for the bitcoin option, and many more are asking about it.

When we started off, we didnt even think well get one, he said over the phone from New York, where Wagepoint has another office.

Whats interesting is that weve actually had customers come to us because of the (bitcoin) integration, which we were not expecting at all.

Rao said the firms are overwhelmingly technology companies, whose workers have higher interest in new innovations and tend to dabble more.

In addition to Canadian interest, he said gets about five inquiries for bitcoin payment per month from the United States, where Wagepoint also operates, although it has not yet launched such an option in that country.

Bitcoin, a decentralized currency, was launched in 2009 by an as-yet unknown person or group. It gained mainstream attention in 2013, and subsequent adoption caused one bitcoin to rise to a high of $1,000.

But most brick-and-mortar shops still do not recognize bitcoin as currency, and neither does the Canadian government, which in June ruled bitcoin is property.

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Is it loonie to collect your salary in bitcoin?