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Want To Get Bitcoins? This ATM Will Turn Your Banknotes Into Bitcoins
Converting the cash in your wallet to Bitcoin is one of the biggest hurdles to getting some skin in the digital crypto currency game. Time was when you had to meet a scruffily-dressed Bitcoin owner in person, at a corner street cafe, to get your hands on a few Bitcoins. Bitcoin’s times are changing though.
Startup Lamassu Bitcoin Ventures is aiming to simplify the process with its Bitcoin ATM machine (left). It’s showing off a prototype of its tablettop-sized ATM at the Bitcoin London conference taking place today. Its snappy tagline is ‘fiat to Bitcoin in 15 seconds’ – and in keeping with that promise the process is designed to be as simple as possible. And simplicity means accepting cash only — no card payments — to avoid having to deal with banks, says co-founder Zach Harvey.
“With our bitcoin machine… you don’t need the bank’s approval to start running these bitcoins machines. You only need cash,” he told the Bitcoin London conference today.
In keeping with the nascent Bitcoin ecosystem, the first prototype of the machine was only created in the founders’ garage back in February.
The machine has a touchscreen to step the depositor through the process; a camera for scanning their Bitcoin QR code where they want the exchanged currency deposited (the machine displays the current exchange rate on the front); and a slot for feeding bank notes into the ATM, which they say will support multiple currencies. Once the depositor has put their paper money in, the appropriate amount of Bitcoins are delivered to the bitcoin address linked to the scanned QR code. The system takes around 10 to 20 minutes before the transaction is confirmed, according to other co-founder, Josh Harvey.
Harvey says Lamassu is planning to distribute the ATM machines globally – “ all around the world” — kicking off production at the end of August, for fall shipment. Where are the ATMs going to be situated exactly? Wherever buyers believe there is a Bitcoin demand they can tap in to – whether that’s inside a shopping mall with a high volume of people passing through or a small retailer that already accepts bitcoin and wants to encourage more of its customers to start using the currency.
The startup is not going to be taking any kind of cut on the currency exchange itself – rather it plans to make a profit on the hardware units, which will sell for $4,000-$5,000 apiece. Likewise, it’s not selling Bitcoin support services around the machine — “we’re keeping out of that because of the regulatory issues,” says Josh. The startup stresses that buyers need to be sure the machine complies with any local financial regulations that might apply to Bitcoin.
Developing countries are one obvious target for the Bitcoin ATM, owing to the millions of people who still don’t have traditional bank accounts. “Once people know that all they need to do is use a kiosk to do their banking, why do they need banks?” added Zach. “You can jump over the old technology of banking systems.”
So while the payment giants and card companies are doing their best — via the likes of contactless payment technology — to kill off cash and funnel more transactions through their own centralised payment infrastructure, startups like Lamassu suggest cash could still play a role in a future currency mix, as Bitcoin’s hassle-free sidekick.
Foursquare Tunes Into International Growth, Inks Live Music Check-In Deal With Deezer To Promote Paid Subs
As Foursquare focuses on the question of growing revenue, it has been slowly turning its game-style mobile check-in app into a platform to support location-based advertising and marketing. That strategy got an international fillip today in a new deal with music streaming service Deezer: people who use the app in the 15 countries where Deezer is active, to check in to live music events across some 15,000 venues, get a chance to also pick up a three-month Deezer Premium subscription.
It’s not as generous a deal as it may sound: The offer only applies in Brazil, Mexico, UK, Ireland, Indonesia, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Spain, Italy, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Poland — the countries where Deezer is active — and users will need to check into at least seven events to qualify. That, in turn, makes a user eligible for the offer, although it not a guarantee that each will win the premium subscription.
Still, the deal highlights a couple of important things. For starters, it’s a measure of how Foursquare is continuing to push at growth and raising its profile internationally. This is not to be underestimated: in February, CEO Dennis Crowley told me that of all the new users it’s picking up at the moment, some 60% are outside the U.S.
The other is that while Foursquare is putting a lot of effort into transforming itself into the go-to platform for social location data — both as a standalone service but also as a big-data API provider for hundreds of other services — it’s still pushing a lot of services based around its bread-and-butter check-in features. Deezer says that this is the first music deal of this kind for Foursquare outside the U.S., but it’s been working with other music providers on projects, such as this partnership with Spotify at the last SXSW.
For Deezer, it’s a sign that the company is looking increasingly to leverage other services popular with smartphone users to continue to raise its profile — scale being an important part of the equation to make the financials for a music streaming service work. Deezer, which has raised an eye-watering $149 million in funding, currently has some 25 million tracks in its catalog.
We are reaching out to both Deezer and Foursquare to see if they can provide some more detail on how the financial terms of this deal work out.
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