Automatic Teller Machines, known across the world by its abbreviation – ATMs were revolutionary machines that made banking convenient for billions of individuals across the world. ATMs made people avoid visiting their bank branch for regular cash withdrawal, deposit, check deposit and other transactions. Today ATMs are prevalent, with at least one ATM in each block.
Banks are adding new features to their ATM networks, enabling people to even pay their utility bills, recharge the phone credit etc. With Bitcoin being referred to as the future of currency, a handful of companies have introduced Bitcoin ATMs as well, These Bitcoin ATMs are of two kinds, one -way Bitcoin ATMs and two-way Bitcoin ATMs. AS the name suggests, one-way Bitcoin ATM allows users to buy bitcoin against cash or card payment, while two-way ATMs allow the exchange of fiat to bitcoin and vice versa.
Bitcoin ATMs are not uncommon anymore. Many universities and malls already have Bitcoin ATMs installed on their premises. Bitcoin has already established itself as the leader of cryptocurrency. Now, we have another crypto technology based platform which is making waves in the crypto-tech sphere. The new crypto platform is known as Ethereum and its crypto-tokens are called ether. The latest development in the crypto and ATM industry is the introduction of Ethereum ATM. Even though the core principle behind the development of Ethereum network is completely different from that of Bitcoin, they both share similar distributed ledger system called blockchain.
Ether on Lamassu
The first Ethereum ATM was reported in a blog post by Ether Camp. It is a modified Lamassu Bitcoin ATM capable of supporting both crypto currencies. According to Ether Camp, the open source code used by Lamassu can be modified to work with Ethereum platform. In addition to dispensing ether, the ATM machine can also be made to interact with the smart contracts based applications based on Ethereum blockchain as well.
Ethereum has gained a lot of prominence in the past few months. Its value has increased over 100 percent and it is still growing strong. Even though ether is the currency of Ethereum network, created for making payments for using the platform to host and access apps on the network, it has become a thing of value by itself. Ethereum can be exchanged and traded against other cryptocurrencies as well. The technical potential combined with monetary value (ETH/BTC) has driven Ethereum’s value upwards and it can be expected to soar further.
The new Ethereum ATM is installed at 55 E 3rd Avenue, San Mateo, California – Hero City. The address is right above well-known blockchain and virtual reality technology accelerator, Boost VC’s office.
Lamassu is a Manchester, New Hampshire based company started in February 2013. It is one of the first companies to introduce Bitcoin ATMs. The company currently has 134 machines installed across the world. According to the data available on Lamassu’s website, out of all the Bitcoin ATMs installed across the world, about 23 percent of them are manufactured by them.
Even though we are not sure about the demand for Ethereum in the near future, it is a progress nevertheless. Whether Ethereum will turn out to be another digital currency trying to change global economy, or stick to being the crypto-token powering smart contracts and other applications on Ethereum platform is to be seen.
Ref: Ethereum ATM is Real Now
