Comments:"NH-based entrepreneurs to launch Bitcoin ATM this week"
URL:http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/blog/startups/2013/05/bitcoin-atm-lamassu-manchester-nh-this.html
Zach Harvey
Entrepreneur Zach Harvey at his band Weird Chicken's last show before leaving Israel, November 2011 at Levontin 7 Club in Tel Aviv.
Want to invest in the cyptocurrency known as Bitcoin? You could go to Mt. Gox, fill out an application and wait to be registered with the online marketplace. Or you can wait until Friday when the iconoclastic founder of Lamassu releases the company’s firstBitcoin ATM, accepting global currencies and dispensing what could be a bona fide economic revolution.
“Old institutions that people thought would never change are now being changed beyond their control,” said Zach Harvey the 34-year-old founder in an interview with Upstart Business Journal.“And it’s not by a person but by a technology,”
The machine can be programmed to accept any world currency, and border cities will be able to simultaneously accept multiple currencies, such as U.S. dollars, Canadian dollars and euros, according to a statement.
The ATM only exchanges from cash to Bitcoin, not the other way around, so it only holds 300 bills, making $30,000 the most it could hold. With less hardware necessary to protect the cash the machine, it could theoretically be shipped via post or courier services to any location in the world.
“It’s nothing personal to the banks," said Harvey. "I just don’t think they will be needed in twenty years.”
A fully functional electronic prototype of the machine presented at the Liberty Forum in February dispensed $5,500 worth of Bitcoin, which are now worth approximately $25,000.
Lamassu will sell the ATMs, which were built from the ground up to sell Bitcoins, to distributors like the Bitcoin Store, which could then offer them to companies or individuals. Harvey estimates the retail value of the ATMs will be roughly $5,000.
Michael earned his BA from Mercer University, along the way excavating a Roman bathhouse with the American School of Archaeology. Plus, he provided security at Oxford University, where he also studied literature and philosophy. He earned his MS from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism while training for and running in the New York marathon.