A start-up based out of Vancouver’s oldest neighborhood, Gastown, is planning to bring a slew of bitcoin ATMs to the city in hopes of cashing in on the current bitcoin revolution taking place.
Quadriga CX, as they are known, is actually a bitcoin exchange. They’re flexing their business model to sprinkle ATMs throughout Vancouver, and they’ve placed an order for 30 Project Skyhook ATMs and are hoping to install them in busy retail and restaurant locations.
“Just having one of these in your restaurant or venue, it’s going to bring in a lot of those younger, technical-savvy, future-thinking people,” said Mr. Aaron Vaithilingam, Quadriga CX office manager in a statement to Georgia Straight. “You want those kind of people coming into your business because they might be good future customers. Having one of these in your business shows you’re advancing and progressive thinking.”
Quadriga CX won’t be charging business owners to have the ATM installed on their premise (and thus attracting potential new customers), but they will be charging a 3 percent fee on all transactions carried out on the ATMs.
And while we refer to them as ATMs, they are more like vending machines like the Lamassu units (pictured above to the left). They only allow the end user to buy bitcoin and not sell it back for cash (like the Robocoin ATM, for example).
According to the Project Skyhook homepage, each unit is priced at $999, open-source, and uses an integrated tablet as the display/touch screen.
“These Skyhooks have really opened the door,” added Vaithilingam. “I think this could help [bitcoin] go mainstream. Just people seeing it and seeing Bitcoin, people will talk about it.”
[textmarker color=”C24000″]Source[/textmarker] Straight.com