banking
Bitcoin
& cash
When these two different worlds collide you
need to get the solution right as the
kiosk industry is at the forefront
By Glory – www.glory-global.com
Wherever you look, cryptocurrencies
are in the news. Love them or loathe
them, you can’t ignore them. In the
past few months alone Lloyds Banking
Group Plc has blocked customers from
buying cryptocurrencies with their credit
cards, becoming the first UK bank to ban
borrowing for Bitcoin. Furthermore, the
South Korean government has barred
its officials from holding and trading
cryptocurrency, and a former Indian
government official has stated that such
currencies should not be allowed as it’s
impossible to regulate them properly. He
claimed that unlike shares, which have an
underlying value, ‘they are created out of
a vacuum or thin air’. At the same time,
24 KIOSK solutions
Cardtronics has claimed that the growth
in public interest could affect the general
population’s need or demand for cash.
Bitcoin was first launched in 2009 as a
digital asset designed to act as a medium
of exchange, and in May 2010 two pizzas
were bought using 10,000 Bitcoin. The
price has fluctuated greatly, but at the
time of writing one Bitcoin is worth £6650.
According to a 27 November Forbes
article Bitcoin saw a 55% increase in
trading volume in 2017 with 30,000 new
wallets created daily.
Ease of use and the role of the ATM
In recent years Bitcoin has become
easier to use and more accessible.
The evolution of Bitcoin ATMs that
enable users to buy and sell bitcoins
for cash is an important element of this
development. The first Bitcoin ATM was
introduced at a Vancouver coffee shop
in 2013, and there are currently 115 of
these ATMs in the United Kingdom, with
83 of these situated in London.