United States to See its First Bitcoin ATM

The humble ATM is getting a major technological upgrade and it’s being fueled by the emergence of bitcoin.

Though the United States won’t be the first country to play host to this innovation (that honor goes to Canada), a number of businesses around the U.S. will have bitcoin ATMs and vending machines under their roofs.

The bitcoin vending machine that is being offered by startup Lamassu allows customers to purchase bitcoins with cash to top up their bitcoin wallets. Storeowners can then have these same customers purchase goods and services with bitcoin.

One of these machines found a home in a cigar bar called Imbibe in New Mexico on Tuesday.

A true bitcoin ATM that can take cash for bitcoins and vice versa is being provided by a company called Robocoin based in Las Vegas. Robocoin is targeting Austin, Texas and Seattle, Washington to launch these bitcoin ATMs within the next month or so.

The ATMs will likely include ID scanners that will identify customers based on passports or drivers licenses.

This ultimately falls back on the issue of states and regulatory requirements.

Enchanted Bitcoins, the operators of the bitcoin vending machine in New Mexico, is registered as a money transmitter and has established an anti-money laundering program. These measures will likely be the baseline standard for many bitcoin businesses operating in the U.S. but ultimately, New York may be the first state to concretely establish regulatory requirements for digital currency products and services.

As for merchants’ willingness to accept these machines, they have some major incentives including the foregoing of paying credit card swipe fees and near instant payments through bitcoin.

One of the major downsides to being paid in bitcoin is the currency’s volatile nature. Its value is largely based on supply and demand, so the price of one bitcoin can vary greatly.

Using bitcoin payment processing services such as BitPay or Coinbase can mitigate this risk, since they convert the value of the bitcoin instantaneously into cash. More intrepid merchants may want to hold on to their bitcoins instead.