Bitcoin ATM Machine Makes NYC Debut

Lamassu’s Bitcoin ATM Machine

Have you ever wanted to add bitcoins to your phone using an ATM machine?

Thanks to co-founder of Lamassu, Josh Harvey, the concept of transferring your USD into BTC at an ATM is becoming a reality. The bitcoin dispenser appeared at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show and costs $5,000.

Manufactured in Portugal, the machine resembles ordinary ATM machines. However, its functions are unique in that you can perform transactions with your phone, as long as the ATM is in front of you. The process may seem foreign to some, but it is pretty simplistic:

Step 1: Users can start by downloading apps such as BlockChain. After setting up a password, users will see a QR code.

Step 2: Next, users press their phones against the ATM so the code can be scanned.

Step 3: Finally, USD can be inserted into the machine, where they will be exchanged into digital bitcoins on the users phone.

See that wasn’t so tough.

Brooklyn native Willard Ling, 30, is set to introduce the first NYC bitcoin ATM in the East Village. Ling is in negotiatians with the Just Sweet tea shop, located on 3rd Ave and 12th street, to house NYC’s first bitcoin dispenser.

Ling has associated with bitcoin for about two-and-a half years, when the price was around $10 per bitcoin. Bitcoins are now well over $800 each.

Ling stated, “I knew it would go up tenfold, just not as quickly as it did.”

Though the bitcoin is no longer at a $10 price range, it’s not too late to jump aboard now. Bitcoins have proved to be favorable among people and businesses and will continue to do so in the future.

For a demonstration of how the ATM works, click here.

This article has been updated.