Kim Dotcom has said his new Mega file-sharing website will take payment in Bitcoins, the virtual currency, from anyone who needs 500GB or more of online storage.

The erstwhile boss of Megaupload, which was shut down by the Feds last year, launched its privacy-focussed sequel Mega in January; it offers a range of premium account plans that boast 500GB to 4TB of space on the file-swapping service. A Bitcoin, the cryptographic-based digital currency, is worth about $26, and Mega's membership starts at 0.5271BC a month.

"Mega now accepts Bitcoin via our newest reseller Bitvoucher," Dotcom tweeted on Saturday.

Folks can rent the storage space by the month or for a year to "lock in the value of your Bitcoin", according to the Bitvoucher sales page.

Dotcom's new venture came under fire for its security from a number of researchers, who claimed that users' privacy and data are not sufficiently protected. But Mega issued statements rebutting the criticisms and offered €10,000 to anyone who could get break the system's encryption.

Bitcoin has had more than its fair share of flak as well; the US Senate called for an investigation into the online cash over alleged links to money laundering and other criminal activity. One of the currency's exchanges also had to close briefly last year after 24,000 Bitcoins were stolen through an unencrypted backup. ®