Robocoin 2.0 Arrives With Bank-Like Features and New Hardware

Dan Palmer | Published on June 10, 2014 at 13:02 BST | Bitcoin ATM, Exchanges, Technology

Bitcoin ATM provider Robocoin enters a new phase of its growth today with the announcement of ‘Robocoin 2.0’, featuring a totally new software platform, alongside improved hardware and extra features aimed at the global banking and remittance markets.

With the announcement, the Las Vegas-based manufacturer takes a big step toward towards its previously stated ambition to make bitcoin more user-friendly for mass-market consumers and its aim to provide financial services for the world’s underbanked.

Bitcoin ‘banking’

Repositioning itself more as a bank with ‘branches’ instead of ATMs, Robocoin is offering a variety of online accounts for merchants, brokers and general customers.

Allowing users access to the company’s machines in all of the 13 countries it currently covers, Robocoin accounts also feature integral bitcoin wallets, removing the need to use wallet QR codes or addresses when depositing or withdrawing.

With public confidence in centralised bitcoin companies at a low following notable collapses like Mt. Gox, the company insists that customers’ bitcoins are “securely stored” in a Robocoin wallet “built on industry leading multi-sig architecture with 100% provable reserves and offline cold storage”.

Another issue that has plagued users of both bitcoin ATMs and merchant point-of-sales systems is the potentially long wait while transactions are confirmed on the block chain. Robocoin now sidesteps this issue completely by taking transaction off-block chain, promising that ATM customers can access their accounts and “get cash and bitcoin instantly”.

Global payments

The company’s ATMs accept and dispense 12 national currencies worldwide and can now be used to send money to anyone using only their phone number or email address, even if they haven’t signed up for a Robocoin account. Recipients need merely to visit the local ‘branch’ to pick up their cash.

With traditional remittance providers such as MoneyGram and Western Union currently reaping vast profits in transfer fees – estimated at around $500bn a year – such a service could see significant savings for workers sending money back home to families.

Even with the relatively low fees that will likely be offered, this is a lucrative market that Robocoin and bitcoin exchanges such as Bitex.la and Coincove hope to tap into.

“Our goal is to make storing and sending money faster, friendlier, cheaper and easier than any other company in the world,” said Jordan Kelley, Robocoin’s CEO, adding:

“Robocoin is expanding the bitcoin market by making it easier. No more downloading a digital wallet, storing a private key, or remembering public addresses. New technology and terminology mean secure deposits, instant withdraws, and the easiest way to send money worldwide.”

The hardware

Along with its announcement of its new platform, Robocoin has also announced a slashed price on its standard bitcoin ATM, plus two new machines with extra features to facilitate security and speedy transactions.
Having reached new scale milestones and improved its supply chain, the company has now dropped the base price for its Robocoin Classic unit from $20,000 to $15,000, while reassuring operators that its ATMs are still made with “top-of-the line, bank-grade hardware”.

Robocoin is also launching a range of ‘recycling’ ATMs, which feature the ability to dispense the cash they accept.
This, in turn, reduces the need for frequent restocking and the security risks involved with regularly handling cash in a public-facing premises. The new hardware handles notes more quickly, further speeding up customer transactions.
The company’s $20,000 base model, the Robocoin Recycler, can accept two bills per second and can dispense at a rate of 1.6 notes per second. In addition, it can hold up to 1,900 notes, the company said.
Its premium counterpart, the Robocoin Recycler Max ($35,000) provides a 100-note batch acceptor and can accept and dispense at a “market-leading” rate of eight bills per second. It can hold 8,300 notes and recycles 6,000 with three different denominations, Robocoin claims, adding that this is the most premium bitcoin ATM in the world.
Robocoin ATMs employ biometric authentication technology, as well as phone and PIN authentication, to protect user accounts and where necessary comply with anti-money laundering and know-your-customer regulations.
Competitor Lamassu promises bitcoin-to-fiat transactions in under 15 seconds, and currently accepts notes from 200 countries worldwide, though its units are only one-way.

Money Spinners: Bitcoin ATMs Make Capitol Hill Debut

Jon Southurst (@southtopia) | Published on April 11, 2014 at 18:46 BST | Bitcoin ATM, Companies, News

It’s a special edition of the bitcoin ATM roundup this week as Robocoin went to Washington, DC, a couple of new players entered the European market via Finland and Slovenia and Quebec City received two bitcoin ‘guichets automatique.’

Washington, DC USA

Surrounded by reporters and camera crews from some of the world’s largest news organisations, more than 50 members of the US Congress lined up in Rayburn House on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC to test a Robocoin ATM.

Presented by Robocoin’s management team at the invitation of Representative Jared Polis (D-CO), the Robocoin machine received an enthusiastic response from other members.
Polis said:

“The innovation of online currency will be an important economic driver for the future that allows people and companies to reduce transaction costs and facilitate international transactions.”

He added that it is physical cash, not bitcoin, that presents the easiest opportunity to hide illicit activity.

Charleston, SC, USA

Another US Robocoin appeared in Charleston, South Carolina, at the Dig South Interactive Technology Festival. This machine comes courtesy of company Southeast Bitcoin, “the South’s only Bitcoin ATM operator.”

Helsinki, Finland

Newcomer Cointter has launched two very utilitarian bitcoin machines in Helsinki, Finland.
Looking a little like a cross between a payphone and a hotel safe, the machines are northern Europe’s first two-way bitcoin ATMs, buying and selling bitcoins for cash.
One is in Helsinki’s Delish store and the other in the Kynsilaukka restaurant. Both were developed in cooperation with LocalBitcoins.com.

Cointter promises future models with a more refined design, which it plans to ship to other European locations including France and the UK.

Quebec City, Canada

Two Genesis1 two-way ATMs opened in the historic heart of Quebec City this week.
The machines exchange Canadian dollars for both bitcoin and litecoin, and are located in the Auberge Amerik Hotel and the nearby Baguette et Cie coffee shop.
Genesis Coin CEO Evan Rose said:

“Canada has proven itself to be a leader in bringing tangibility to the otherwise digital world of bitcoin … We want individuals to experience bitcoin in its most elegant form: swift, simple, secure.”

Slovenia

Slovenia, famous for giving the world it’s currently most popular bitcoin exchange Bitstamp, is now also home to one-way bitcoin kiosks of a previously unknown variety. The operator’s company website is short on detail, but it seems the machines are called ‘BTC-O-Matic’ and that there are at least two operating.

BitXatm Announces ATM with Merchant-Friendly Point of Sale Function

Dan Palmer | Published on April 8, 2014 at 10:29 BST | Bitcoin ATM, Merchants, Technology

Germany-based startup BitXatm has announced the arrival of its Sumo Pro – a cryptocurrency ATM with a POS (point of sale) function that will appeal to merchants seeking to easily accept payments from customers in digital currencies.
Costing €2,900 (around $3,993), the stand-alone machine offers a generous 17-inch touchscreen and has the ability to accept any fiat currency. Additionally, it can accept or dispense any digital currency, according to the company’s website.

Operators of the Sumo Pro are able to link up with any exchange partner’s API to facilitate the supply of digital currencies, improve liquidity and enhance security.
The machine offers a web-based back-end, so owners can keep an eye on cash flow, profits, or change settings such as the fiat-to-bitcoin exchange rate from their web browser. Furthermore, proprietors can opt to receive SMS notifications for things like transactions or fund balance.

For businesses that need to comply with anti-money laundering (AML) and know your customer (KYC) laws, the machine provides an identification check on customers using the device’s ATM function, which can be further enhanced with an optional fingerprint scanner.

How it works

As illustrated in the video below, the Sumo Pro offers a quick and easy method for customers to pay for products or services using their mobile devices.
In the restaurant example shown, the waitress sets up a transaction at payment time by logging into her staff account and entering the bill total, then prints out a paper receipt for the customer.
The customer then scans the QR code on the receipt into his or her digital wallet, checks the amount, then clicks ‘send’. The transaction indicates it’s complete soon after on the Sumo Pro screen, and the customer is free to go – or do the washing up if they don’t have sufficient funds.
The process looks very simple – certainly as easy as paying with a credit card – and the Sumo Pro also provides a reassuringly professional looking front end that should help to inspire confidence in new bitcoin customers possibly made wary by recent media gloom surrounding cryptocurrencies.
The BitXatm machine also offers merchants the chance to bring in some extra income via interest on transactions when the Sumo Pro is used in its ATM mode.

Competitive market

The Sumo Pro is manufactured in Romania, according to BitXatm. It will start shipping machines in May. If they sell out, there will be a 30-day pre-order window for new purchases.
The company faces increasing competition from other startups in the bitcoin ATM arena: Robocoin has seen great success and sends machines all over the globe, as does Lamassu, who also plans to enhance its machines for other bitcoin services, such as remittances. Other companies are also gearing up for the fray.
However, the unique selling proposition of the Sumo Pro is its user-friendly POS feature. If it really is as simple as the video would have us believe, it may be a product that will start finding its way into the mainstream.
BitXatm also aims to carve itself a decent slice of the market with the very competitive €2,900 price tag. Robocoin (at $20,000) and Lamassu (at $5,000) are both pricer and offer fewer functions – for now. Yesterday’s announcement of a €1,000 ATM from PayMaQ may worry the company, but their machine lacks the attractive POS function of the Sumo Pro.
This is the kind of technology that many have been pushing for: easy-to-use, with elegant systems to ease the on-ramp for consumers and businesses alike entering the world of digital currencies. Let’s hope the Sumo Pro lives up to its potential.
Why not check out Money-Spinners, our regular roundup of the latest cryptocurrency ATMs?

Australian Manufacturer Debuts First Cashless Bitcoin ATM

Jon Southurst (@southtopia) | Published on March 24, 2014 at 11:53 GMT | Bitcoin ATM, Companies, News, Startups

An Australian company says it has produced one of bitcoin’s holy grails: a cashless ATM that allows users to buy bitcoins using a credit card, and sell bitcoins via a direct deposit to their bank account.
The first fully functional Diamond Circle ATM arrived from its manufacturer in Brisbane this week. Unlike competing ATMs and vending machines that rely on QR codes and cash, Diamond Circle’s solution is based on near-field communication (NFC) technology with paper receipt backups.
This unique approach is the brainchild of CEO Stephen Rowlison, a seasoned FinTech (financial technology) entrepreneur with 30 years of IT experience in Australia, Asia and the US. Before founding Diamond Circle, Rowlison was working on various projects developing NFC payment and loyalty card systems for retailers. He said:

“I was interested in NFC technology and payments, but just needed a unit of transfer. After learning about bitcoin, I figured I could combine the NFC chip with the ATM idea.”

He added: “What I’ve really done is just brought together two existing technologies: contactless NFC and BTC. QR code payments have been outlawed in China and have no inbuilt card security, which is why using contactless technology makes so much sense.”

Wallet tags

Although Rowlison is exploring other NFC devices for his ATMs, he has decided to focus on a ‘wallet tag’ for now, which is a small disc that can be used as a pendant or keychain.

“It’s got the same smarts as banking technology except we mandated a Personal Identification Number for all tags that are registered online.”

It’s the same contactless technology being deployed in some countries by Visa’s PayWave and Mastercard’s PayPass. Australia’s point-of-sale debit card network EFTPOS, which uses PC compatible devices, has also begun using NFC chips.

This all means Diamond Circle will be in a dominant position to launch its second phase: POS integration that will enable retail merchants to accept payment in bitcoin using devices they already have.
The ‘wallet tag’ devices function as cold storage wallets that communicate with the cashless ATMs. Customers also have the option to print out paper receipts and use them with more traditional smartphone or desktop wallet clients. The paper receipt can also be used as a backup for wallet tag users.
Diamond Circle customers can use the NFC ‘wallet tag’ device with a number of smartphones to check bitcoin balances and broadcast their public address.

More secure storage

Diamond Circle provides customers a secure way to store and use bitcoins. The company does not provide online bitcoin wallets that are often susceptible to theft. Diamond Circle wallets and private keys are stored only on the wallet tag devices and paper receipt backups.
“Even if we get hacked, there’s nothing to take,” Rowlison said.
Diamond Circle will save a fortune by not handling physical cash. Once a machine needs to handle paper (or in Australia’s case, polymer) dollar bills it reduces the value proposition by increasing the costs of its production, materials and maintenance.
He insisted the technology itself was a lesser challenge, since it uses mostly off the shelf components that have already been tested in other payment systems.

“Once we ironed out the problems of bitcoin, the value proposition for consumers and the entire supply chain becomes obvious. instant cheap international money transfer and payments.”

Working with the current financial system

Often the bigger test faced by Diamond Circle and other bitcoin startups is learning to function within the regulatory environment. Rowlison said his focus has been on developing a compliant product with all KYC/AML regulations built in, meaning Diamond Circle ATMs are fully compliant.
This focus has helped the company form the necessary partnerships with banks and other financial institutions, though there has still been some resistance.
“It hasn’t been easy, we’ve had two rejections from major banks,” Rowlison continued.

“They just need to understand risks can be managed, it’s just a matter of getting that through to them. I don’t see it as an ‘Us vs Them’ situation, bitcoin is just another currency, we can coexist. We need to figure out how we can cooperate.”

He said there had also been “a bit of pushback on locations” from larger shopping malls worried about the product being delivered. The company may need to prove its technology first in a smaller location, like the coffee shops and cafes that house bitcoin ATMs elsewhere, then move to larger centers.

International interest

The company is an ‘Enrolled Money Transmitter Business’ and is run by a team with extensive C-Level experience in various fields of compliance in Australia and in the US.
Diamond Circle has received international interest in their ATMs already with queries from customers in in the UK, Canada, USA, Asia and the Middle East, and says it has already sold two of its ATMs within Australia and one to the UK.
The company is listed on cryptostocks.com under the ticker XDC, a direct pass through to their underlying shares, which helped them raise initial seed capital.
Images via Diamond Circle

The First US Bitcoin ATM Arrives in New Mexico

Daniel Cawrey (@danielcawrey) | Published on February 19, 2014 at 01:14 GMT | Bitcoin ATM, News

After months of rumors and speculation, the first bitcoin ATM in the United States is now in operation.
The machine, manufactured by Lammasu, is located in a cigar bar called Imbibe in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and is being operated by Enchanted Bitcoin, run by Eric Stromberg.
Lamassu and Enchanted Bitcoin worked together to make the US bitcoin ATM a reality.
Zach Harvey, CEO of Lamassu, told CoinDesk that Stromberg was able to obtain proper regulatory permissions quickly, and that as a result, the launch occurred upon receipt of the ATM.

“He’s been very good at concentrating on what had to be done to be fully compliant. Yet he kept things simple enough to manage a launch only weeks after receiving his machine.”

Compliance

New Mexico happens to be one of only two US states that do not require a money transmitter business (MSB) license to operate. The other is South Carolina.
Stromberg’s briskness has allowed his ATM to reach the US market in a short time. The absence of procedural money transmitter requirement in New Mexico may have helped, too.
Harvey told CoinDesk that Lamassu’s ATMs have verification features built-in:

“We’ve always had compliance in mind. Our machine was designed to scan IDs barcodes and OCR for use with third party verification services.”

Compliance means that Lamassu has to remain vigilant on the latest money transmitter policies.
“It’s an ongoing project. It’s been a challenge to find a way to take the regulatory requirements and make them quick and painless for the end-consumer,” he said.
Physical and not just digital security is important as well, said Harvey.

“Our machines were designed to resist any standard smash-and-grab attacks. Anything more than that would render any ATM vulnerable.”

Demand

The current turnaround time for a Lamassu ATM is 10-14 weeks. Harvey told CoinDesk this is because the devices have become rather popular.

“This is only due to the recent rise in demand, we are making them and shipping them as fast as possible.”

Lamassu is building its ATMs as fast as it can, but it has competitors. Robocoin is planning to launch ATMs in Seattle and Austin, Texas, soon. Further, LocalBitcoins.com recently announced it is building a 2,732 BTC ATM of its own.
Because of this, Lamassu needs to deliver ATMs to customers as fast as possible to compete with a growing number of rivals.

A close-up rendering of what the Lamassu bitcoin ATM looks like. Source: Lamassu

“We are currently ramping up production from 40 machines a month to 60 machines a month, and then to 80 machines a month. Our goal is to build up inventory and reduce lead times to zero,” Harvey said.
Harvey wants to be able to serve its customer base as quickly as possible.
“If people want our machine, we want to be able to give it to them now,” he said.
Lamassu ATMs are available to order. The price is $5,000 for one unit, $4,500 for 5-9 units and $4,000 for 10 units or more.
The company does accept fiat in the form of bank wires, but it prefers payment in bitcoin, according to its website.

100 Bitcoin ATMs to Land in Australia Soon

Jon Southurst (@southtopia) | Published on February 3, 2014 at 11:30 GMT | Companies, News, Technology

100 bitcoin ATMs are about to hit the streets of Australia, according to a local radio report.
This weekend, state broadcaster ABC ran a short report on bitcoin during its current affairs program The World Today. It included the news that a company called Australian Bitcoin ATMs would be distributing ATM machines all over the country.
The report didn’t give away many specifics about the project or the company, and the brand of the ATMs wasn’t mentioned. CEO Chris Guzowski said:

“You can type in how many bitcoins you want to sell, then our ATM goes onto an overseas bitcoin exchange and executes that transaction for you and will spit out the cash for which you sold the bitcoin for. And the opposite also applies, so you can put cash in and purchase bitcoin.”

This information suggests that the ATMs will be two-way, and the image on the company’s website shows they’re likely to be Robocoin machines.
The interview also quoted David Glance from the University of Western Australia’s Centre for Software Practice as saying it will take more than ATMs to facilitate mass adoption:

“I think that until you see the National Australia Bank or the Commonwealth or one of the major banks getting behind the currency, providing simplified access to it, I think it’s always going to be a niche,” he said.

Banks and regulators

In fact, National Australia Bank (NAB) has done just that already. After the Commonwealth Bank shut down business and personal accounts belonging to Melbourne-based payment processor CoinJar and its founder, NAB approached the company with an offer to help it manage its bitcoin affairs.
NAB also published a mostly-positive internal research paper on bitcoin for FX traders, saying that while bitcoin did not meet the legal definition of a ‘currency’, it is everything a currency is supposed to be: durable, portable, fungible and divisible.
Australian regulators have not issued any formal guidelines on bitcoin just yet. But the governor of its central bank did pass on a casual warning about “speculative excesses” in a newspaper interview last December.
CoinDesk has contacted Australian Bitcoin ATMs and the Australian Bitcoin Association for comment on this story, and will update.
Australia Image via Shutterstock

Bitcoin ATM Appearance Draws Crowds in Zurich

Jona Kallgren (@Jonakallgren) | Published on January 24, 2014 at 10:00 GMT | Events, News, Technology

It’s the financial capital of Switzerland, filled with huge banks and powerful companies. It is also considered the world’s largest gold trading centre, and is home to over 1,300 multi-millionaires. And now, after a guest appearance by a bicoin ATM, Zurich has been introduced to cryptocurrencies.
The ATM in question is a Lamassu unit that was widely considered to be Europe’s first bitcoin ATM when it was installed at a market hall in the Slovakian Capital, Bratislava. After reading about the unit, two Zurich-based bitcoin enthusiasts, Dorian Credé and Christian Mäder, took the 10-hour trip to see the machine in action.
They were both impressed. So much so, that Credé called Lamassu that very evening to place an order for his own unit.
But unwilling to wait for the ATM to be delivered in mid-march, Credé set out to convince Marian Jančuška, who owns the Bratislava unit, to let them take it to Zurich for a guest appearance. To his surprise Jančuška immediately agreed, and one week later Credé and Mäder went back to pick up the unit and install it in a busy market hall in the centre of the city.

Beyond expectation

Dorian Credé and Christian Mäder with the ATM in Zurich

The trial ended on Wednesday, and Credé said it was a “huge success, beyond [...] expectations”. Over the four days that the machine was operational, 90 transactions were made and a total of 14.8 bitcoins were purchased.
This is despite the machine only being able to handle euros, not Swiss Francs – and only being able to display Slovakian as a language. Also, being a Lamassu unit, it only converts fiat currency to bitcoin, not the other way around.
Credé and Mäder were on hand with the ATM at all times to help people buy bitcoin, and answer any questions about the cryptocurrency. It was hard work, but worth it, said Credé:

“People came from all parts of Switzerland just to see the ATM. It was pretty cool. We had one person from MasterCard and one from a private bank who came all the way from Geneva just to buy some bitcoin, Then they asked a few questions before they drove all the way back.”

Credé said that he invested about 2,000 CHF (approximately $2,219) of his own money to bring the machine over. The 3% service charge went to the ATM’s owner Jančuška, so in the end he has no financial gain to show for it. But this was never the plan.
“It was more a spontaneous reaction. I love the idea of being the first to show it in Switzerland. I can say mission accomplished,” he said.

Bitcoin fascination

Dorian Credé with the Lamassu ATM

Credé’s fascination with bitcoin goes back several years, stemming from his other project: Wikirating which provides free and collaborative credit ratings of companies and countries.
After having the idea to pay contributors in bitcoin, he became more and more interested in the cryptocurrency. Credé eventually started the World Bitcoin Association with Mäder – who is one of Switzerland’s most prominent bitcoin bloggers. The aim of the Association is to unite non-profit bitcoin organisations around the world.
One person involved the project to bring the ATM to Switzerland had a step learning curve. Daniel Bollhalder, who manages the market hall where the ATM was housed, admits he did not know much about bitcoin and that he is quite “old-school” when it comes to these things.
However, after seeing the machine in action he was more than happy to offer a permanent space for Credé’s own ATM when it is delivered.
“We are crazy people, so we say yes to crazy projects. It is that simple,” he said.
Zurich Image via Shutterstock

Bitcoin ATM Installations Surge in Canada

Joon Ian Wong (@joonian) | Published on January 19, 2014 at 15:06 GMT | Companies, News

Three cities in Canada are set to have bitcoin ATMs installed in the coming weeks, making the country the top ATM location in the world. New ATMs will be installed in the Canadian capital city Ottawa as well as Montreal and financial hub Toronto.
The ATM operators are announcing their plans to install machines across the country even as Canada’s central bank issued a statement yesterday declaring bitcoin is not recognised as legal tender there.
Fadi Azouz, who operates the Montreal machine, said his ATM would be installed by 24th January at the Bitcoin Embassy in Montreal. It will take live rates from either BitStamp or the Canadian exchange Virtex and will charge a 5% for transactions. The ‘embassy’ is a non-profit organisation dedicated to promoting bitcoin. Azouz said the central bank’s announcement would have no impact on his plans:

“The [statement] does not affect us at all. As long as the millions of people using bitcoin around the world continue to believe in it and trust it to be an honest method of payment, it shall continue to [be] just that.”

Azouz added that his company, Vx5 Technologies, will be installing and operating bitcoin ATMs in eight countries this year. They include Lebanon, the Philippines, Hungary and Venezuela, among others.
Azouz will not be operating a Lamassu or Robocoin machine, which are the two most well known manufacturers of bitcoin ATMs at present. Instead, he has opted for a machine built by an Ottawa company called Bitaccess. The firm calls its machines ‘BTMs‘.
Bitaccess makes a machine that converts fiat currency to bitcoin and another model that does two-way conversions. Current players Lamassu and Robocoin offer machines that convert fiat to bitcoin or two-conversions respectively.

A Lamassu bitcoin ATM

The Ottawa ATM maker has also included a wallet-generation feature on its machines. This means the ATM can create a wallet for a user who does not have an existing way of storing bitcoins. According to Bitaccess, a high-entropy, one-time, paper wallet is generated, which is then scanned manually by the user. The company says it doesn’t store any information about the printed wallets.
Ottawa will also get a Bitaccess machine, according to a report from the Ottawa Citizen. The machine will be operated by a company called BIT-Capital, which also claims to run several cryptocurrency investment funds. The Ottawa ATM was installed in the Clocktower Brew Pub yesterday, according to the Citizen‘s report. The micro-brewery boasts four home-brewed beers and an “upscale pub menu”.

Tom Drummond, a bitcoin user in Ottawa, said he welcomed the arrival of an ATM in the city. He said his current method of buying bitcoin on Canadian exchange Virtex takes between two hours and three days, depending on how he transfers his money to the exchange.
Virtex charges a 1.5% fee for a 120-day trading volume of less than 400 BTC and 0.5% for a trading volume greater than 2,000 BTC. It also allows customers to deposit or withdraw cash using a prepaid debit card that costs CA$10 for the card and CA$2 for each cash withdrawal from an ATM. The process can be complicated and daunting for a new user, which is one reason Drummond welcomes bitcoin ATMs in Canada.
“I feel ATMs will be good exposure to the public for BTC,” Drummond said.
In Toronto, Canada’s commercial capital, an ATM has been installed at Bitcoin Decentral, a co-working space dedicated to bitcoin businesses in the city’s downtown. The space is 5,500 sq ft spread over four floors. The ATM is run by the Bitcoin Alliance of Canada, according to a report from the Toronto Star. It’s unclear what type of machine has been installed, but it appears that it is not a Lamassu, as the Star reports that it can perform two-way conversions between bitcoin and fiat currency.

Robocoin bitcoin ATMs

Vancouver was the world’s first city to have a bitcoin ATM permanently installed last October. That Robocoin unit made waves after it reportedly accepted more than CA$1m in deposits in its first 29 days of operation. Its operator, Bitcoiniacs, said in December that it would install Robocoin machines in Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto and Calgary in December, but the Bitcoiniacs website only lists the Vancouver machine.
Manufacturers of bitcoin ATMs, Lamassu and Robocoin, have been engaged in a race to sell their machines around the world. Lamassu announced it had sold its 100th unit. New players have been entering the scene, ranging from the open-source Skyhook ATM to Canada’s homegrown Bitaccess BTM.

ATMsBitaccessCanadaLamassuRobocoin