NyPo
reports:
Bitcoin ATMs are coming to the city.
Josh Harvey, co-founder of Lamassu, showed off the first bitcoin dispenser at last week’s Consumer Electronics Show and has found quite a bit of interest for the $5,000 machines.
The machine, designed and manufactured in Portugal, looks like a typical deli ATM — but functions more like a vending machine. You put in US dollars and receive bitcoins back on your phone.
Users first download a bitcoin wallet mobile app — such as BlockChain or Mycelium — and set a password. A black-and-white QR code appears. They press the phone against the ATM’s glass window so it can scan the code, then feed in cash.
Presto, the machine sends bitcoins to the phone.
Will this be shutdown before it even launches? The government will certainly consider this a currency exchange operation, which means it will have to registered with various state and federal agencies, some of which will require that identification be obtained of those doing transactions. I have seen some machines that have the capability to take such information, but judging from the NyPo report, this machine doesn't seem to have that capability.
You have said that bitcoin is not a currency.
ReplyDeleteWhy should anyone object to a bitcoin vending machine, anymore than to a beanie baby or a tulip bulb vending machine? Unless, of course, bitcoin is something quite different from those red herrings?
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