At a celebratory event on Monday evening, two bitcoin ATMs were launched in Auckland. These are believed to be the first in New Zealand.
Operated by Bitto NZ, the machines are manufactured by Lamassu, who has sold upwards of 100 ATMs that are now in use around the world.
The two ATMs are intended to be used at events and/or by appointment. That means they won’t be in one same spot for the town’s people to come and use at their leisure.
And while the community has taken to the “ATM” name, Lamassu units are more like vending machines in that they only accept fiat in exchange for bitcoin.
“We don’t want to see them cash-out,” said Bitto co-founder Jonathan Ewing. “There’s other methods and ways for them to do that and we can point people in the right direction but we’re all about helping people get into Bitcoin.”
Bitcoin ATMs have seemingly become a new craze this year, with multiple manufacturers working to bring their machines online at high-traffic locations around the world.
According to The New Zealand Herald, at least eight other bitcoin ATMs are planned to launch in New Zealand. Six are planned for Auckland, and the other two in the nation’s capital, Wellington. One of the units will reportedly be a two-way ATM like Robocoin or the Genesis1, which allow customers to not only buy bitcoin with fiat, but sell their bitcoin for fiat.