Bitcoin making a major step in the world
Bitcoin will continue to become a part of regular purchase transactions as Bitcoiniacs plans to open a Bitcoin ATM in Vancouver, Canada by the end of next month and add four more throughout Canada by early December. The machines are manufactured by Robocoin and retail for $18,500 each.
With the use of these machines, consumers can exchange Bitcoin for dollars based on values received from VirtEx, a Bitcoin exchange. Having the ability to switch between digital and traditional currencies shows how popular the digital currency has become.
Adoption of the Bitcoin currency
The remaining four ATMs will be located in Calgary, Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal – a substantial adoption of Bitcoin technology seeing as the only other Bitcoin ATM (the first to be made available) is in Cyprus. Mitchell Demeter, founder of Bitcoiniacs, says this first round of Canadian Bitcoin ATMs will be a test group that the company will evaluate after some time has passed and then decide if it makes sense to expand. Since the market for these ATMs is still small, it make sense to test first with a small group and then make an informed decision to implement them on a grander scale, according to Demeter, who says “Once we get the market data from these initial units we hope to go big!”
But beyond expanding Bitcoin adoption and usage, the ATMs will operate under similar logistics and fee structures that are associated with standard ATMs.
This new crop of ATMs will have a $3000 transaction limit and Bitcoiniacs plan to make a 3 percent commission per customer transaction. Although a deal is not yet finalized, Demeter plans to place the Vancouver ATM in a downtown location of Waves, a coffee shop that already accepts Bitcoin. By keeping the transaction limit at $3,000 or lower, Demeter hopes to avoid any regulatory pushbacks by Canada’s Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre.
